Conah Walker: I'm going to take Pat McCormack into deep waters and drown him

It’s the first thing he noticed about his room at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel, even before he stopped to admire the seaview, or took a moment to look at the yachts down in the harbour and the convoy of Rolls-Royce’s rolling down the Avenue Princesse Grace.

“It’s another world out here,” chuckles the 30-year-old Wolverhampton welterweight. “It’s absolutely amazing.”

Hotel room tours aside, there has been little time for Walker to take in the sights and smells of one of the world’s most glamorous locations. His reason for being there is strictly business.

“This is my office for the week,” he says at one point.

On Saturday night, Walker faces Pat McCormack aiming to continue one of the best runs in British boxing which, over the course of two-and-a-bit years, has taken him from the small hall circuit to a British title and into the conversation as a potential world title contender.

That latter possibility would move a significant step closer should he beat Olympic silver medallist McCormack at Salle des Etoiles, in a fight fascinating in large part for the fact it is one neither man desperately needed.

That is certainly the case for Sunderland’s McCormack who, for all his undoubted amateur pedigree, has somewhat rolled the dice by agreeing to face Walker just eight fights into his professional career.

Walker, meanwhile, a boxer who has benefited so much from a willingness to take the hard road, turned down the option of a hand-picked mandatory defence of his British crown to instead target McCormack and the latter’s No.4 ranking with the WBA.

Some pressure, admittedly, is relieved by the fight being overseas, meaning the British title is not on the line. But there is so much to gain.

“I had an opportunity to fight a mandatory defence of the British but I chose Pat, someone who is going to test me mentally and physically,” says Walker.