Top Rank Inc. and promoter Bob Arum have signed Olympic gold-medal winner Ryota Murata of Japan to a promotional contract, and Murata will be introduced to reporters next week at a Los Angeles news conference.

Murata won the gold medal in the middleweight division in the 2012 London Games. It was the first gold medal won by a boxer from Japan since Takao Sakurai won the bantamweight gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Games. Murata’s medal also was the first medal won by a Japanese boxer in a division other than flyweight or bantamweight.

Murata, 27, will campaign in the middleweight division as a pro.

Top Rank not long ago signed Zou Shiming of China to a contract. Shiming won gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games in the light flyweight division.