AMIR KHAN, who grabbed a silver medal at the 2005 Olympics, won his ‘world’ title four years after turning pro. Therefore James DeGale, who won gold at last year’s Games, could reasonably expect to be two or three years away from mixing at that level. James, however, has lofty aims and the 23-year-old believes that he has come from a shaky pro start to emerge as one of hottest young prospects in British boxing.

“I think I’m coming on well,” said DeGale. “I started a bit shaky [a tepid points win over Vepkhia Tchilaia in Birmingham last February], everyone knows that, but I think everything has gone great. I answered my critics in my very next fight by destroying Jindrich Kubin in two minutes.”

“I was running my mouth a little bit and I believed that if I didn’t box well, or stop him, that I’d leave myself open to some stick,” admitted DeGale when recalling being booed on his pro debut. “I went back to the gym and worked hard. I didn’t realise how much of a change it would be moving from amateur to professional. So I put in the work.

“[Trainer] Jim [McDonnell] makes me do things like putting a bar behind my shoulders to punch from the hips, hitting the heavy bag and boxing in that imaginary circle to get me moving in-close. You could see against Nathan King [in December] that I was in that circle.”

Indeed, McDonnell recently had DeGale running through the snow in order to prepare his man for the tough times ahead. James hopes to reciprocate by bringing success to his trainer’s gym. “He is great”, enthused DeGale. “He is my trainer, my conditioner, he runs with me and does some technical sparring with me.

“No one gives Jim the credit he should get, he boxed some fantastic fighters, men like Barry McGuigan, and he is a top man; me and Jim are going to the top. Inside, he might feel that little bit empty for not winning a ‘world’ title and I’m going to make that up for him by bringing him titles. He’s been there and done it, he knows what dieting is like, and he knows what it is like to have a hard fight.”

Even the boo boys have disappeared into the woodwork. “All I get is love and support,” revealed DeGale. “On my email and Facebook, on Oxford Street or the local shopping centre. When I think about these boo boys now I think, ‘Where are they?’ – as I’ve won them over with my last few performances.

“I think some people don’t like the confidence and arrogance but boxing needs a bit of that. It doesn’t need all these nice, humble guys, it needs a bit of character or it gets boring. I’m a nice boy, don’t get me wrong, but when it comes to boxing, I am confident in my ability and people take that as arrogance. So people either love me or hate me.”

One criticism lingers, however, with the claim that DeGale is cuffing his shots when he opens up. DeGale believes that this can easily be explained. “My punching power is coming on and it is about getting out of old habits,” he explained.

“As an amateur, I used to do that and in different fights I’m showing different things. Against Nathan King people said I was doing that [cuffing] but I was toying with him a little bit, which I shouldn’t have done, because it felt easy in there – I should have been blasting.

“In my second fight I came out there and banged away to get the guy out. So I can do it but I’ve just got to get out of that habit of cuffing away. That is my only fault but I’m gradually getting out of it.”

With the gold medal came success, with success came exposure, and with exposure came pressure, so James will need to possess impressive mental strength not to falter.

“The ‘Olympic gold medallist’ is gone, people recognise me but things are back to normal,” he laughed.

“One thing would match standing on that podium with the national anthem playing and being given the title ‘Olympic champion’ – a world title. That is my massive target, to be both Olympic champion and world champion, and to do it by holding all four title belts.”

DeGale is likeable, a cheeky chappie if you will, but his tone soon became serious and sombre when talk turned to the man he had defeated on his road to winning that gold medal, Ireland’s late Darren Sutherland.

“My heart dropped to the ground,” he said when recalling his reaction to the news that Darren had taken his own life. “It was the worst thing ever. People thought we were rivals but we weren’t, we were competitors and it was healthy. We had so much respect for each other.

“We boxed six times with him winning four and me winning twice so we knew that we’d definitely meet down the road and probably box for a world title – it was a real shame. You don’t know what is happening in a person’s head, but he was a great fella, he wouldn’t say a bad thing about no-one and what a prospect – I was looking forward to boxing him again as it would have been fantastic for us both.”

DeGale, 5-0 (3), takes on Surrey’s Matthew Barr, 14-5 (6), at Wembley Arena on February 13.