The path to the ring is not always easy for boxers and can be dangerous.
The canvas was not the only source of glory for Francis Ampofo as he fought his way from the streets of London to the top of British boxing.
After stepping out of the ring, he took on the world of business in 2003 with the purchase of a 26acre farm in Norfolk with 10,000 chickens, a nod to his own early life in Kumasi.
Ampofo said he loved chickens from back in his home country.
I knew I wanted to get into chickens when I arrived at the farm.
The first time Ampofo challenged for a world title was when he lost to Jake Matlala for the WBO title in 1994.
After retiring in 2002, Ampofo returned to something that was close to his heart.
He said that he was born in Ashtown in the Ashanti region. My mother came to England when I was three years old.
My grandmother looked after me for three years after she came to work in the National Health Service.
She'd peel them all, put them in a bowl that I'd carry on my head, and then go back for more.
Ampofo loved living in West Africa.
It was a great day. I wanted to go back to Africa when I first came to this country. I hated it because it was like prison to me.
I go to work in the market at six in the morning if I want to. It is different in this country.
You are locked in the house all the time. Unless you go to school, you don't go out. You're back at school. There is no out.
He wasn't helped by the fact that he didn't know anyone in England.
I used to go to get all the eggs before giving them to my nan, because we had a lot of chickens in our house.
It was my job every morning to clean, feed, and give water to the chickens.
The early days on the farm were important to me because I like animals.
Ampofo was a target at school because of his small stature, which made it difficult for him to start his career.
I used to get into fights at school. He said that he couldn't take the jokes. I joined boxing so I could defend myself.
I couldn't take the older boys' banter. I was 13 years old.
They'd pick me up, throw me in the bin, and I'd get out and fight. They were too strong for me.
One day I will defend myself, that's how it began.
The training was great. I would come back and learn more after being beaten up. I succeeded in taking over and overcoming them.
I like to win. I trained to the top and that helped me get there.
Ampofo was nicknamed "The Pocket Battlerocket" due to his height.
Ampofo almost switched his loyalties to his country of birth when the Ghanaian boxing team were in London for the Olympics.
I was in the British team as a sparring partner and they came over to spar with us.
They already had a good flyweight so they couldn't take me in to box for them.
Ampofo won the British flyweight title within a year of his professional debut.
His last chance at a world title came in 2002 when Johnny Armour defended his World Boxing Union's bantamweight title.
Ampofo stopped working hours later.
He said that he deserved to have one world title, but now he can't call himself a world champion.
Ampofo has risen to master another profession over the past 20 years, taking joy in every step of a journey that would have made a little boy in 1970 proud.
He thought it was shocking. I'm a kid from Africa and I'm going to learn car mechanics and go back to my home country.
When I was 17 I wanted to go back to work, but boxing kept going, and now I'm on the farm. I loved boxing all the time. If I get another chance, I would do it all over again.
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