Adams and Campbell have fame and fortune at their fingertips

Hull’s Luke Campbell, 24, and Leeds’s Nicola Adams, 29, are two of 10 British boxers qualified to compete in their home Olympics this summer.

And Richie Woodhall – a bronze medallist in Seoul who went on to become a world super-middleweight champion – believes what lies in wait for the Yorkshire duo at this summer’s Games and beyond could potentially be greater.

Bantamweight Campbell already has a European title and a world silver medal to his name and is widely regarded as one of the men’s team’s strongest medal candidates.

Flyweight Adams – who won a world silver medal for the third time in her career last month – has history at her fingertips as one of three Britons set to contest the first Olympic women’s boxing tournament.

As ever with Olympic boxing medallists, fame and fortune awaits, and Woodhall believes a golden future awaits both, particularly Adams.

Woodhall – who trains the British squad twice a week – said: “It’s an historic occasion, the first Olympics with a women’s boxing tournament and Nicola Adams is going to hopefully be the first ever Olympic gold medallist.

“And she’s got the talent. She’ll be very, very difficult to beat, she’s just got to keep showing the dedication in the gym because at the end of the day talent is never enough.

“You’ve got to have that commitment, that dedication and that desire to win an Olympic gold medal.

“If she carries on the way she has been going, showing that commitment, then there’s no reason why she shouldn’t.

“She’s very dedicated, all the girls are. I would never question their determination, certainly in Nicola’s case, and that’s why she’s one of the favourites.

“Nicola has a great attitude. She’s very confident. We’ve sent her to numerous tournaments where she’s won gold medals.

“There will be fighters out there that will raise their game when they are boxing Nicola. But she has home advantage and a great chance.

“And with Luke, he’s very, very difficult to beat.

“He’s very tall for the weight, a southpaw, a very awkward counter-puncher.

“If he decides to sit back and control from the centre of the ring and not come forward and just use that jab he can be so difficult to hit.

“And if you don’t get hit you don’t lose, so right now we’re trying to maximise that awkwardness.

“Come the Games, with a bit of luck in the draw, which you always need no matter who you are, especially if he can avoid the Cuban (Lazaro Alvarez) who beat him in the worlds early on, then I think he’s good enough.

“He’s good enough to beat the Cuban in the final, and that would be a nice gold-medal winning performance.

“There won’t be many that beat him because of his style.”

No Olympic sport offers the chance to carve out a lucrative professional career after the Games, quite like boxing.

The walls at the Team GB base at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport are adorned with pictures of the country’s Olympic medallists, from Alan Minter in 1972 to Audley Harrison in 2000; Woodhall in 1988 to Amir Khan in 2004. Men who went on to make a fortune in the paid ranks.

The chance to follow in their footsteps is obvious for Campbell, but not so for Adams in the women’s game.

She recently told the Yorkshire Post that she may continue in the amateur ranks until the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

But Woodhall believes that with a gold medal around her neck, she can choose whichever career she wants.

He said: “Women’s boxing has come on a lot in the last four or five years, and this summer it will hit the headlines because it is its first time in the Olympic Games, so who knows if it may become big on the professional side of things. We don’t know how successful it will be.

“So many doors open with an Olympic medal. Nicola is very likeable, she’s a great talker. If she wins an Olympic medal the BBC might turn round and ask her to present children’s TV.

“If the nation warms to Nicola Adams because she boxes well and interviews well then you never know what is around the corner.

“The Olympics is a great launch pad. Most fighters dream of becoming a professional world champion, I did, and it’s a natural progression that they will want to turn professional.

“If you turn professional with an Olympic gold medal around your neck, you’re not going to be in a situation where you’re going to have to sell tickets here, there and everywhere, because as a pro that’s what you have to do.

“If you win an Olympic gold medal everyone wants to see you, television wants to screen you. You can earn a lot of money.”

Before thinking of medals, Woodhall wants the likes of Adams and Campbell to remain fully focused on the job at hand.

“They are going into these Games with vast experience of big tournaments, but they’ve still got to keep those blinkers on because I’ve seen it all before,” he said.

“Boxing in front of 15,000 people can be a distraction, your mind can wander and your eyes can wander.

“You’ve got to keep your focus because the crowd is going to be going mad, they’ll take the roof off and you’ve got to stay focused and stick to your game.

“If you can do that then I think we’re looking good for medals.

“That’s what I remember most from boxing in the Seoul Olympics, the amount of people you box in front of.

“It will be an advantage boxing at home; every time they land a shot the crowd is going to go ballistic. But at the same time you cannot play to the crowd, you’ve got to stick to your game, stay relaxed and remember your game plan.”

Sheffield gym helps Britons pack a punch

Gone are the days of creaking boxing gyms housed in the top of listed buildings, the smell of sweat and vaseline filling the senses as soon as you walk through the door.

The modern boxing gym is clean, organised and well-maintained, replete with physio rooms and a conference suite.

Nowhere is this more evident than at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport, which houses the British amateur boxing squad.

The 10 boxers who will represent the home nation at this summer’s Games – seven men, three women – have everything they need.

They train four to five days a week.

Their meals are shipped in, physiotherapy and massages are on hand.

It is all a far cry from the set-up Richie Woodhall was brought up in ahead of the Seoul Olympics 24 years ago.

“It’s an incredible transformation,” he said. “We had the odd weekend here and there building up the Games.

“We had four camps where we had a week at home, a week at Crystal Palace and so on.

“I was having to say to my employer ‘can I have the time off to train?’

“The pressures then were so different to what they are now. These are full-time athletes, funded. They have their food, their physio, they do not want for anything.

“And they have the best facilities I think in the world in terms of the gym they’ve got and the sparring we provide them.

“And it’s helped the team on the international stage. When I was boxing in the amateur ranks we were not feared by the likes of the Russians and Cubans etc. Now they’re looking over their shoulders at us.

“If you can’t win an Olympic medal from this set-up, you never will.”

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