As he gets ready for a fight this weekend, a professional boxer declares that being the first British-Bangladeshi world champion is his "dream".
According to 21-year-old Hamza Uddin, his father Siraj, who is also a boxer, urged him to take up the sport when he was just two years old.
On Saturday afternoon, the flyweight from Walsall will face Benn Norman at the NEC in Birmingham.
He claimed to be "working hard and staying focused and disciplined" after signing with Eddie Hearn's Brentwood, Essex-based Matchroom team earlier this year, marking his professional debut.
According to Uddin, Kash Gill, a British South Asian four-time world kickboxing champion, trained his father.
"My father was a boxer back in his day, he was only starting up but he had an injury so then he stopped," said Uddin.
"There's a video of me on my second birthday in my nappies; I can barely walk but I'm punching the bags.
"I was a chubby little nerd when I was seven or eight, but my dad kept me disciplined.
"My first fight was at 10 years old and that's when we thought this was serious; we thought I could be something special."
Despite achieving academically and securing a place at Wolverhampton University to study business management, Uddin dropped out to pursue his boxing dream.
"Every day I am boxing, I am achieving something new for my people, but to be a world champion and the first from a nation, if you deep it, that is a massive achievement," he said.
"It's not just a dream, it is actually something very possible and that's why I am working hard and staying focused and disciplined."
Uddin's professional record according to his Matchroom profile, is two wins out of two, including one knockout.
Uddin said Amir Khan, who is British-Pakistani, had been an inspiration for most South Asian boxers.
"But in terms of having a role model and having someone Bangladeshi, there is absolutely no-one to look up to.
"That's why the dream is so strong, because one day if I can do it then maybe one day little kids can say Hamza Uddin has done it, so we can do it."
"You get the whisperers who are like 'what is he doing boxing for, it's not a brown man sport, it's not a Bengali sport.
"But that's pushed me on further.
"I'm proud to have my community behind me; it spurs me on; it is a bit more pressure; more people are counting on me to win.
"I can't let them down."
The 5ft 7in fighter added: "Some people say, I would have been in jail if I wasn't boxing, but I'm not no gangster.
"I don't mess about; I'm a good clean kid; I would have been working in an office."
Alex Le Guével, head of community development at Matchroom, said: "You can box being any size or gender.
"Boxing focuses on a lot of social issues, especially gangs.
"A boxing gym is a positive version of a gang."
Uddin's fight is on the undercard of the Sunny Edwards v Galal Yafia flyweight WBC intermin bout in Birmingham.