Oleksandr Usyk has dominated the sport since his Olympic heavyweight gold medal win in 2012.
The Ukrainian has beaten the likes of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in his extraordinary campaign in boxing’s glamour division.
A recent rematch win over Daniel Dubois ended in a brutal knockout, cementing his place as one of the all-time greats, with even Shannon Briggs believing Usyk edges Evander Holyfield in fantasy fight.
But his dream before turning professional was always to be the Olympic champion, and he was entirely focused on completing that mission.
Oleksandr Usyk made a hilarious mistake in his diary on when he would achieve Olympic gold
Usyk had planned out his win in one of the most prestigious competitions when he became a boxer in a diary entry.
Speaking to Mail Boxing, he said: “I wanted to become an Olympic champion just after I started boxing.
“In your diary, you usually note who you want to become, so instead of just writing who I want to be, I wrote I wanted to become an Olympic champion, including the dates and the weight class.”
While showing his ever-present ambition, the 38-year-old admitted that he got some information wrong when trying to manifest a win.
“But I was mistaken by four years. I became the champion not in 2008 but in 2012, and not in the 81kg category but in the 91 kg category,” he laughed.
An honest mistake for the young fighter to make, but it didn’t matter in the slightest when he beat Clement Russo on points to finally realise his goal.
0 out of 4 2016 super heavyweight medallists won a world title, including hard-hitting Brit
Many successful boxers from the heavyweight and super heavyweight classes at the games include Joshua, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko, and Joe Frazier, who all became legendary boxing champions.
However, a gold, silver or bronze in amateur competitions does not always guarantee success in the professional ranks.
An incredible example is the super heavyweight class of the Rio 2016 Games, with none of the medal winners winning a world title in the sport’s most devastating division.
The winner of the top prize Tony Yoka has had a tumultuous career, only managing a European title but accumulating three losses against opposition such as Martin Bakole.
Joe Joyce, who controversially lost to Yoka in the final, was one of the closest to becoming champion with a WBO interim heavyweight title win.
But the ‘Juggernaut’ was stopped in his full world title quest by the ‘Big Bang’ Zheli Zhang with two back-to-back knockout wins.
Filip Hrgovic was never able to win an interim title when he lost to Dubois and the other third place fighter Ivan Dychko has only managed 13 fights since turning pro in 2017.
What it does show is that skill is not the only thing you need when turning over from amateur; you also need special qualities to become a world champion.