His coaches at Lochee Amateur Boxing Club had arranged some sparring in a number of gyms in the area and 19-year-old Hickey was front of the queue.

Fast forward seven years and middleweight Hickey (6-0, 3 KOs), the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, is perhaps the hottest prospect in Scottish boxing. Now, he's back in east London for his seventh pro outing.

What’s more, his coaches have arranged another away day for 45 young boxers, with more sparring planned on Saturday. They will then head to Copper Box Arena to watch their most feted graduate in action.

“I remember that trip very well,” he tells The Ring. “I had loads of bouts as a youth and a junior, going away with Scotland, but that was something completely different for me, to go away with my club like that.

“Now it’s a bit of history repeating itself and we’ve got 45 boxers coming to this show, Zuffa have sorted them out with tickets. They’re flying down Saturday morning, have got some sparring sorted out in the day just like we did, then they can come and watch me fight.”

Hickey, 26, is a native of Scotland’s fourth largest city Dundee but is yet to box on home soil as a professional. Even so, his amateur success produced a huge spike in participation across the city.

“Since the Commonwealths in 2022 the club’s just been mad,” he says. “They’re trying to get a new extension now, got planning permission and everything. There’s just so many kids boxing now and they can’t fit everyone in.

“In 2022, Dundee was buzzing and one of the club committee said that after I won gold, the club was just mental on the following Monday. I feel immense pride and know I’m flying the flag for everyone when I box now.”

Hickey’s professional journey so far has taken him to Leeds, Barnsley, Bournemouth, Dublin and London but his dream is to box back in Dundee.

Now he hopes his alliance with Zuffa Boxing and their exclusive broadcaster Sky Sports will enable that.

“Just look at what they did with Chris Billam-Smith in Bournemouth or in Barnsley with Callum Simpson,” he says. “My dream is to do the same in Dundee. I think we could go to the Caird Hall first, that’s around 2,500, and I would sell that out in an instant. From there we could build it up.

“You’ve got a lot of people who aren’t really in the know about boxing who support me because of what happened in the amateurs. It’s just the way I am, always representing the city and what better way than to get a show up there.”

Hickey was scheduled to face Troy Coleman on Saturday but the Staffordshire man pulled out late last month.

Instead, he will now take on Frenchman Amaury Massenaux (16-4-1, 4 KOs) in his second eight-rounder as part of the main Sky Sports broadcast. It is another step up for Hickey on his march towards the first major title he is hoping to win.

“I’d love to box for the British title,” he says. “There hasn’t been a British champion from Dundee in a long time. I’m only 26 so I’ve got a lot of time on my hands. I want to do all those steps on my way to the top and the British is one of them.

“George Liddard is the British middleweight champion and I don’t feel like I’m far off him at all. But in this game you need to bide your time and my time will come. I don’t know if they will be in a rush to fight me but when the time comes I will be ready.”