Former British junior welterweight champion and professional footballer, Curtis Woodhouse, was doing outreach work in prisons and schools when an old friend asked him to stop by and speak with a student who was struggling with bullies.

Woodhouse didn’t know it at the time but his heavyweight was about to enter his life.

"The door opens and in walks in a 6-foot-5 Jamaican with dreadlocks,” Woodhouse told The Ring.

“This sounds terrible but I thought to myself, ‘That must be the kid who's bullying the kid who I'm waiting to see.'

“After about ten seconds I realised, ‘Holy s—t. This is the kid that's being bullied.’”

That kid was Adrian King.

King (7-1, 5 KOs) was born in Jamaica and moved to England when he was five years old. He and his family moved around the country before settling down in Beverley.

East Yorkshire and Jamaica both have coastlines but, apart from that, they couldn’t be more different.

As the only black pupil at his school, King became a prime target for bullies. Rather than acting as a deterrent, his size seems to have attracted extra unwanted attention.

“One of the teachers just thought I needed some mentoring. Curtis came in and we did a bit of boxing. I think I was 14, 15 around that time and my attendance was really low. I wasn’t coming to school. When Curtis came in, I'd always be there,” the 21-year-old said.

“We made a deal with the school. They said, ‘If you come to school, you will get to train.' My attendance shot to 98% or something crazy like that."

Although the conversation between the two didn’t immediately flow, King was clearly doing his research at home.

He had been told Woodhouse was a former professional footballer but, one day, he broke the silence by randomly asking about his career as a boxer.

The two soon began hitting pads and what started as a confidence building exercise quickly became the start of something much more serious.

King is now a very promising professional. Woodhouse is his trainer and manager.

“This is an example but let's say we had a 40-minute car drive, I’d probably say two words. I was very shy and very self-conscious when I was younger because there were things I had been through,” King said.

“I was getting in trouble for fighting with other kids because I wasn't happy with what they were calling me.

“Even when I was playing rugby, I was fighting. Then I started watching boxing. My dad was speaking about it and then I was watching people like Lennox Lewis and Jamaican heavyweight boxers. Just boxing in general. When I figured out Curtis actually did boxing, I was excited.

“I did swimming, basketball, athletics, track and field, rugby and none of them stuck with me like boxing,” he continued.

“It [boxing] is the first sport I've ever done and I wasn't good at it. Every other sport, I've just started and been good at it.

“Boxing was the first sport where it doesn't matter how athletic you are, you're still going to get jabbed up.”

King is understating his abilities.

He is leaving out the records he held for sprinting, the high jump, the shot-put and the javelin. He also forgot to mention the offers he had from the Hull FC rugby league club and Hull City football club.

Woodhouse was a one of a kind athlete himself.

He had a successful career as a top class professional footballer and represented England at under-21 level before retiring at 26 to box.

Woodhouse went from earning good money and playing in front of tens of thousands of people to fighting hard men in small halls for pennies. His professional career was a rollercoaster ride and the night he outfought the slick Darren Hamilton to become the British junior welterweight champion and make good on the promise he made to his late father, Bernard, was genuinely memorable.

It didn’t take long for him to realise he had something special on his hands.

“I've been in professional sports since I was 16 and I've never seen anyone like him,” Woodhouse said.

“Adrian was a freak at school but he just went into himself because he was getting bullied and forgot it all. He held all the records at school for everything.

“We did an 800m running session, then a 400m session and then we did ten 100m sprints to finish. The first 100m that Adrian did, he ran in 10.7 seconds. That was without starting blocks

“If anybody had got hold of this kid at a young age, he could have been anything. He could have been track and field star or a footballer. He got a scholarship for rugby. He showed me some footage of him playing and he's like Jonah Lomu.”

King chose boxing.

Woodhouse knows better than most that it takes much, much more than athletic prowess to become a successful boxer.

He endured his fair share of pain and embarrassment but refused to stop until he achieved his goal.

Woodhouse immediately recognised similar qualities in King.

After a hard session, Woodhouse would worry that he had pushed the enthusiastic but inexperienced teen too hard and would listen for his footsteps coming up the stairs to the gym.

He always turned up.

King’s days aren’t getting any easier.

“He sparred Tyson Fury. He didn't even have a clue who Tyson was. He went to spar Joseph Parker. He did four with Parker and Tyson said, ‘Can I jump in for a couple?’” Woodhouse remembered.

“Fury had his head guard on and after the first round, Adrian came back and said 'He's good.' I said, 'Yeah he's not bad is he? He's the heavyweight champion of the world so don't worry, the next couple of rounds will be a bit rough.'

“He's sparred Martin Bakole, Parker, Frazer Clarke, Lawrence Okolie, David Adeleye. He’s been in with everyone and this is a kid who's only ever been in a boxing ring eight times in his life.

“He has no right to be operating at the level he's operating at.”

That hard sparring is a key component of Woodhouse’s plan.

He knows that if King progresses the way he is expecting, big promoters will be falling over themselves to offer him opportunities but he is also aware that King has lots to learn and is determined not to be rushed.

King lost an early career fight but he and Woodhouse are treating such episodes as lessons rather than stumbling blocks.

“I'm going to put him in fights where he might lose a couple more because that kid just knew a little bit more at that time,” Woodhouse.

“These next few years for me are just about developing him but he's so far ahead of the curve it's ridiculous to be honest.

“I know it may sound crazy and I understand that but I've never been more certain about anything in my life that Adrian will be the heavyweight champion in the world. He’s a special talent.”

King lets out a little laugh when asked what he thinks of Woodhouse’s prediction and isn’t getting carried away. He is concentrating on the day to day work rather than looking too far into the future.

“It makes me feel confident,” he said.

“At the same time, I don't really concentrate too much on that. I just make sure I'm in the gym, I do my best and do what I'm told to get to where I want to be.

“To be honest, I feel the improvements from week to week.

“I'm very inexperienced. When I've been sparring with some of the top guys and I'm going in there week in and week out, I’m just absorbing all the information. I just keep getting better and better and better. As long as that keeps happening, I'll be happy.

“I've had a lot of hard work and hard days. I've not really had it my own way and I believe that's what's made me strong, if that makes sense.

The person who once retreated inside himself can now walk into a gym and feel at home amongst big, confident characters.

Regardless of what he goes on to achieve, boxing has already changed Adrian King’s life.

“It's done a lot, especially in that regard,” he said.

“When I walk into the room, I'm confident in myself and my environment. If there's something on my mind, I'll say it whereas before, you’d be lucky to get word out of me, really. Let's say three, four years ago, I wouldn't have been able to do this interview with you.

“Boxing's played a massive part in my life. Not just for me, but the people around me as well. They've seen a big improvement so I'm happy with the improvements.”