Mark Dickinson readies to make his pro debut

When and why you started boxing:
Around age six I started going to the gym. That was because my uncles [Jon Lewis and Travis Dickinson] both boxed and I followed them there. Really I just wanted to be like them.

Favourite all-time fighter:
Marvin Hagler’s probably my favourite to watch but I think Floyd Mayweather’s the best of all time. Hagler gets stuck in.

Best fight you’ve seen:
I like Gatti-Ward but Hagler-Hearns is a good one as well.

Personal career highlight:
Obviously getting on Team GB as an amateur was good and that. But I’m not really the type of person to look back on my achievements. I just want to keep moving forward. I just see that as something I’ve done now and I’ve got to move on from.

Toughest opponent:
I boxed an Armenian [Arman Darchinyan, who would become a Tokyo Olympian] in the World championships when I was 19 or 20. He was properly tough. He was just walking through my punches, which I’ve never really had before. That’s man strength, which is just starting to come for me now.

Best and worst attributes as a boxer:
I think my best attribute is I’m not just a one-style kid. I can box, I can box going forward, inside, long range. My worst is probably my diet – Ben Davison is sorting that out for me.

Training tip:
Give 100 per cent at it or go home.

Favourite meal/restaurant:
I like a nice Indian.

Best friend in boxing:
Will Cawley. I met him on GB, we were in the same flat together on GB and then we turned pro together and came down here [in Essex].

Other sportsperson you would like to be:
I’d be a footballer because they get paid nicely.

Last film/series you saw:
Breaking Bad, that’s unreal.

Who would play you in a film of your life:
That’s a hard one. Leonardo DiCaprio!

Have you ever been starstruck:
Not really. I kind of just look at everyone the same.

Last time you cried:
The last time I remember crying was when I got beat in the European Games.

Best advice received:
You can never learn too much.

Worst rumour about yourself:
None that I know of. But I suppose all press is good press, isn’t it?

Something not many people know about you:
I don’t live an exciting life. I just go to the gym. But I’ve kind of come under the radar. People who follow amateur boxing, they’ll know who I am. But the general boxing fan, I think they’re going to get a shock when I start coming up through the ranks.