Mullingar teenager Patsy Joyce has a simple retort when asked about his golden ambitions at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool - 'why not?'
The 19-year-old is already assured of a medal of some description after a fabulous victory over the much heralded Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov of Uzbekistan on Wednesday and on Saturday faces Spain's Rafael Serrano Lozano in the semi-final with a silver medal to come if his hand is raised at the end of the three rounds.
The Westmeath fighter is daring to dream bigger, though.
"Hopefully get the gold," he added. "I’ve beaten some of the best ones already so why can I not beat the rest? I’m only 19, 2028, that’s where I'm going - to LA (Olympics).
"The first fight of the tournament is always the hardest, when you get into it, you get going."
Such confidence is justified when you look not only at the result of the Mirzakhalilov fight, but the manner of it.
His opponent, 11 years his elder, led 4-1 on the scorecards after the first round, but Joyce dug deep to secure an overall 3-2 win.
"I lost the first round but thought the first was tight," he said.
"When I went back to the corner, Zaur (Antia) told me to jab – the one-two wasn’t working - and whack it into the body. I caught him a few times with that, it was working in the second round. I won the second 3-2 and pushed on from that and I won the third 4-1."
Joyce, who fights in the men’s 55kg division, is aiming to emulate Michael Conlan, Ireland’s last men’s gold medal winner at the championships back in 2015 in Doha.
With Aoife O'Rourke and Grainne Walsh also guaranteed medals, he said it has been a terrific performance by the team.
"Yesterday (Wednesday) we had three on and three wins all for medals," said Joyce, whose uncle John Joe Joyce, a 2008 Olympian, helped cultivate his love for the sport.
"A good day at the office, all over the moon."
You can watch the Irish semi-finalists in action at the World Boxing Championships live on the RTÉ Player
