Tuesday 19 May 2015 15:41, UK
James DeGale is obsessed with making history - and is confident that he will.
DeGale won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2008 and has the chance to become the first British boxer to become a world champion on the back of it.
The super-middleweight takes on Andre Dirrell for the vacant IBF world title in Boston, USA, on Saturday, May 23, live on Sky Sports, and putting his name in the history books is always on his mind.
"As it's getting closer and becoming more real, that I could make history," he told Sky Sports.
"A lot of people say I am obsessed about making history - well, I am because that is what drives me on and that's what pushes me."
Great Britain has produced six Olympic boxing gold medallists since the war, with Anthony Joshua and Luke Campbell the most recent in 2012.
Terry Spinks (Melbourne 1956), Chris Finnegan (Mexico City 1968) and Audley Harrison (Sydney 2000) had the chance to go on and add a professional world title with only Finnegan coming close, losing his only world title shot in 1972.
DeGale was born 14 years after that and with Harrison losing his WBA world title challenge to David Haye four-and-a-half years ago, the 29-year-old always knew he had the best chance of all.
Believe me, I am ready and I will make history
"It was on my mind from the moment I got that gold medal," he said.
"You know you are going to turn professional and it was never far from my mind. It's always been there, but now it's here, I am not going to waste this opportunity. Believe me, I am ready and I will make history."
DeGale (20-1-KO14) arrived in Miami on Sunday to "acclimatise and tick off the last couple of boxes" before travelling to Boston in fight week.
Dirrell (25-1-KO16), who won an Olympic bronze in Athens in 2004, is on home soil but has never been a world champion, losing a split decision to Carl Froch in Nottingham in 2009.
The American still believes he should have been awarded the win, but DeGale has not bothered studying that or any of his other fights.
"I don't like looking at his fights too much because the guys he's been fighting against are not me," he said.
"When I get in that ring with Dirrell, I am going to be so much faster, so much more elusive and I will punch much harder than anyone he has faced.
"He can expect a fully focused, strong, ambitious Olympic champion ready to make history and become the first British Olympic gold medallist to win a world title. I hope he is confident and is fit because he is in for it."
For more from DeGale downloand Toe2Toe podcast at www.skysports.com/podcasts/toe-2-toe. And watch DeGale v Dirrell live on Sky Sports 1, from 8.00pm, Saturday, May 23.
