Commonwealth Games: Bradford boxer Harris Akbar poised for exciting quarter final against Olympic bronze medallist Aidan Walsh

A freak of the light middleweight draw pits the newly-crowned European champion against Olympic bronze medallist Aidan Walsh, representing Northern Ireland here.

The pair have never fought at senior level but Akbar’s first recorded fight in 2013 was against Walsh in an England-Ireland international at Woods Hotel in Westport.

The stage will be a little different this time with a partisan crowd set to descend on the NEC on tomorrow.

Akbar said: “This is what I’d have hoped to be the final.

“It just goes to show how hard the Commonwealth is. It’s one of the toughest divisions and it says everything when you’re up there competing.

“It’s going to be a clash of styles for sure, but we’ll see who the better man on the day is.

“It’s not going to be about styles, it’s about who is the better man.

“Hopefully the home crowd will be different, the English are going to bring it.”

Akbar was untroubled in his round of 16 opener, taking victory over Ghana’s Jessie Lartey by unanimous decision, roared on by home support.

He said: “It felt good. Get the first one out of the way, open the lungs. That’s all it is really. It just felt unbelievable being in there.

“We’ve never had this atmosphere before.

“You must get used to it, even in the walkout, trying to get in the right frame of mind. The crowd can really motivate you and that’s all I did in there, enjoy myself.”

It feels like Akbar has never come down from the high of May’s victory in Armenia, England’s only gold medal at the championships.

He said: “It’s the self-belief more than anything. The self-belief I have, I can’t even put it into words. If I put in my best performance, no-one will beat me.”

Despite being an Olympic medallist, Walsh is not feeling the pressure. He said: “The public put expectations on you, but I’ve no expectations on myself.

“Away from an Olympic medallist I’m a normal person, I love kayaking, I love going to McDonalds, I love Chinese, going to my caravan and doing normal things. I think my life stayed the same. I spent less money than I did before I won an Olympic bronze medal, I go out less than I did before.”

Walsh beat beat Lesotho’s Arena Pakela by unanimous decision in his last-16 tie to set up the exciting bout with Akbar.

He added: “I just want to enjoy it to be honest, regardless of winning and losing. All the time we focus on gold medals, but you neglect the enjoyment of it.

“Good performances lead to good things. The team’s great and it’s a great honour to be captain of the team.”

National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk and get involved by using the hashtag: #TNLAthletes.