When Lisa Whiteside first pulled on a pair of boxing gloves she was employed as a full-time firearms officer with Lancashire Constabulary and her pugilistic aspirations went no further than keeping fit.
Nine years, two world championship medals and one significant weight-loss campaign later, the Preston 29-year-old is best placed to stop Nicola Adams' campaign for a second consecutive Olympic gold medal in its tracks.
Whiteside and Adams are set to square off for the first time in the women's 51kg category at the English National Championships in Liverpool on Sunday, provided both negotiate routine-looking semi-finals on the previous day.
It is the bout Whiteside has dreamed of since she made the brave decision to boil down from the non-Olympic weight of 57kg - where she won her first world medal in 2012 - to challenge the seemingly invincible Adams for the flyweight slot.
It was a decision which was emphatically vindicated when Whiteside, given a rare chance at 51kg as Adams was out injured, won world silver in South Korea late last year, only missing out on the gold via a controversial split decision.
Yet all along Whiteside knew she would likely have to chase down her Great Britain team-mate Adams if she was to convince selectors she was more worthy of the plane ticket to Rio - and on Sunday in Liverpool she is set to get that chance.
Whiteside told Press Association Sport: "Obviously I've always been seen as second best and the underdog but I think the world championships marked a point where people began to question where I could actually go.
"It gave me the confidence to think I might actually get this opportunity for Rio. It's a massive opportunity for me and while I have the utmost respect for Nicola when we get in that ring it all comes down to just the two of us."
Olympic selection was not an option for female boxers when Whiteside first laced on the gloves, not that it would have stirred any hopes in a fighter who lost her first bout.
Still fitting in her sport around full-time shifts, Whiteside improved to reach the England team around the time the likes of Adams, Natasha Jonas and Savannah Marshall became the first intake of female fighters to the full-time Great Britain squad with London 2012 in mind.
Whiteside won world bronze at 57kg in the same year Adams became a household name by claiming Olympic gold, and it dawned on the Preston fighter that her only chance of also becoming a full-time athlete lay in pursuing a career at the lower weight slot.
"I saw the doors opening and the possibilities for me and it is still unbelievable for me to think that I am living the dream as a full-time boxer with all the access to facilities and experts that entails," added Whiteside, a keen advocate of spreading her successful message round the region's schools.
"I've got a background outside the sport so I'm quite grounded, so I appreciate where I am now and I hope young girls look up to me and start to think about where they could go in the future too."
Whiteside and Adams are joined in the women's 51kg draw by Birmingham's Kim Shannon and Plympton's Becky McMullin. Kept apart due to seeding, they are scheduled to square off in the final early on Sunday afternoon.
Source: PA
