“IF you sit there thinking about the other man you’ll start over thinking it and you’ll build him up to be a monster and he’s not is he? I am the monster.”

Luke Watkins might only be heading into his third professional fight but he already has the mind games down to a tee as he builds up to his fight at the Oasis this Saturday.

The 24-year-old has not had the smoothest of build-ups, with his opponent being changed on a number of occasions, but the cruiserweight is ready to go.

The Paddy Fitzpatrick-trained fighter had been set to face Radek Linka, but will now face the undefeated Hungarian Istvan Kun, who has the same 2-0 record as Watkins.

“Physically I feel great, I hear people always saying I am in the greatest shape of my life, for every single fight, I monitor my body fat, I monitor my weight and I am in better shape every single time,” he said.

“When you’re physically in a great shape it automatically gives you that mental boost.

“I believe I can punch, I believe any man at this weight can punch, with 14 stone coming behind the punch, it’s got to be able to dig a little bit surely.”

Watkins, who was signed by George Groves in August, has had a whirl-wind start to his professional career fighting on his managers’ undercard at Wembley before flying to Germany to fight Martin Horak on a world title show.

“It has been very surreal, you have always got to remember to keep your feet on the ground, you are out there doing that and it is crazy, you are out there in the limelight and I am not even at the pinnacle of the sport,” he added.

“We’re in the very early stages, in hindsight at the bottom of the food chain and I think it is already crazy and I am just excited for what more is to come.

“I don’t think you get in this not to get to the top of the food chain, and I believe one day I will become a world champion.

“A lot of people came up with me to my debut at Wembley and I thought that was amazing, and now being on the doorstep there are no excuses.”

Watkins, who got into boxing at quite a late age, was watched by a lot of youngsters at the open training session on Saturday and he hopes to be an inspiration to those children.

“When I was about six or seven, I was probably running around pretending to be a police officer pretending to arrest my brothers, but now I have been through my own life experiences and it has put me on this path,” he said.

“You dream every night so why can’t a man’s dreams change? My dreams changed at the age of eighteen or nineteen and now it has put me en route to this and I am happy with it and will continue to chase it.”