Savannah Marshall's club coach Tim Coulter recalled the day a 12-year-old girl pushed through the door of his Headland gym in Hartlepool and set out on the journey that would take her to the Olympic Games - and the top of the world.
Marshall made history on Saturday by becoming Britain's first women's world boxing champion in dramatic style in Qinhuangdao when she shrugged off a bloody nose to edge out Azerbaijan's Elena Vystropova 17-15 and claim middleweight gold on her 21st birthday.
Women's boxing was almost non-existent in 2003, with no hint of Olympic inclusion and only five years passed since Jane Couch was forced to fight through the courts to be granted a licence by the British Boxing Board of Control.
But that did not stop Marshall pushing in to the distinctly male environment and telling Coulter she wanted to become a boxer.
"I saw my friend doing it, and I thought, it can't be that hard," said Marshall.
Coulter had other ideas.
"I had my opinions about women's boxing back then, and I just wanted to get shot of her," he admitted. "I put her in with a tough lad and hoped if she took a few whacks I wouldn't see her again.
"But within a few minutes of getting in the ring for the first time, I saw the aggression and desire in her when she was trying to land punches. I knew she was something special, and she's got better every day since then."
In a windowless sports hall in Gorton, Manchester in 2009, an 18-year-old Marshall won the British title in only her second senior fight, stopping Sian Hemming in the first round for what was her seventh consecutive inside-the-distance win.
Sitting ringside that day was the then British women's coach Mick Gannon.
"She is a star of the future," Gannon said as Marshall bludgeoned Hemming. "There is nothing in her class. I believe she is going to go out there and set the world alight."
In the increasingly competitive world of women's boxing, Gannon could not have been proved more right. While the sport secured its place on the Olympic programme, Marshall set about claiming major titles, starting with EU gold in 2010.
Even the move up to 75kg, to comply with the Olympic weights, and the shift from a virtually unfunded existence to full-time training with the GB podium squad at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield did not faze the young Hartlepool fighter.
"People tell me Savannah must start feeling the pressure," said Coulter. "The pressure of getting on the team or going to the World Championships, or having to win one more bout to qualify for the Olympics.
"But Savannah doesn't seem to feel any pressure at all. She just goes out there and does what she does. She takes no notice of what people say to her or write about her. Sometimes I wonder if she realises just how much she has achieved."
After winning a silver medal at the World Championships in Bridgetown in 2010, Marshall grudgingly accepted the rise in media interest, coming over so reticent in interviews that she has been dubbed the 'Silent Assassin'.
She said: "I just go out and box and don't worry about anything else. It's what I do and nothing's going to change that. I never thought there would be the chance to go to the Olympics, but it didn't stop me dreaming about it."
Even a nightmare draw which pitted her against unbeaten American Claressa Shields, former European champion Lotte Lien and reigning super-heavyweight world champion Nadezda Torlopova could not stop that dream becoming reality.
By beating Vystropova, Marshall raised her profile for the pre-Olympic build-up whether she likes it or not.
There is no doubt she heads into 2012 as a genuine gold medal prospect. She has come a long way since the day nine years ago when she walked in the Headland gym - and changed Coulter's views on women's boxing for good.
"How many kids from Hartlepool get to go to the Olympics?" said Coulter. "I think she's going to be the most famous person ever to come from the town. So famous, one day people might even stop talking about the monkey!"
