Adam Azim doesn’t shy away from the big billing. Sky Sports have been happy to ask the question of whether he is “boxing’s next superstar” prior to his seventh professional bout this weekend. Normally that kind of listing is reserved for boxers who have already claimed Olympic medals.

So far so good. It is difficult not to be impressed by Azim, and his combination of power and speed. On Sunday afternoon, when he boxes at the Alexandra Palace, London, against Rylan Charlton.

But Azim had dreamt of this happening his whole life. He started boxing at 4 and by 6 was a regular, with his Dad and brother, at the fights of Amir Khan, his hero who is now a close friend and mentor.

“It has been incredible because there are a lot of people going on the journey with me,” Azim said. “There are a lot of people admiring my work. There have been great nights so far with a lot of excitement and they are only going to get better.

“A lot of people have ambitions to be a world champion. So far it is going the way I want. Everything is timing and I’m going at a fast pace right now, but at the same time I have ambition to be the youngest world champion [from Great Britain].”

That youngest world champion tag will be a bit beyond Azim. While Khan did it at 22, Naseem Hamed did it at 21, while nearly a century ago, Teddy Baldock was recognized (at least by the British Boxing Board of Control) as world bantamweight champion when he was 19.

“Amir Khan was world champion at 22 and I was inspired by him, hopefully I will do it younger than him.

“Amir was my hero growing up. He was a British Asian world champion and he was a unified world champion too. I used to watch Amir when I was young and my Dad used to say ‘one day you will be here’. I looked up to him as a kid and now he is like one of the family.

“I started boxing at 4 and started watching boxing at 5. When I was 6, my Dad took me to watch Amir fight. I saw the fights with Michael Gomez, [Dmitriy] Salita and [Oisin] Fagan.

“The Salita fight was an incredible atmosphere. Khan got the job done in a round, so it was explosive. He had blistering hand speed, had the fastest hand speed in the world and he showed that at world level.

“But I have got my own style and you guys haven’t seen most of what I can do yet.

“My favorite fighters were Floyd Mayweather and Joan Guzman. I like to think I have a bit of them in my style.”

Azim is trained by Shane McGuigan and there are enough hungry fighters in that gym to help Azim keep his feet on the floor.

“I’ve got Chris Billam-Smith, Lawrence Okolie and Daniel Dubois in the gym and they are all good people and people I look up to because they have all been at the stage I am at and one day I hope to be at the stage they are at.

“Sunday is going to be a masterclass by me, hopefully I will get the win and a knockout. I’m not expecting it to be very early, but if I land early, he can go out quickly.”

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.