Glenn Rushton could see it before Jeff Horn had even stepped in the ring.
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This kid will go to the Olympic Games. This kid will become a world champion. This humble kid that turned to boxing after being bullied can become a legend.
Fast forward 12 years and they are slowly climbing the ladder. Horn went to the Olympics, and he shocked the world when he beat Manny Pacquiao to become a world champion.
Next stop: legend status. Horn (18-0-1) has a chance to prove he can be one when he defends his World Boxing Organisation welterweight strap against superstar American Terence Crawford (32-0) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday (AEST).
Crawford is considered a Hall of Famer-in-waiting and Horn enters the bout as a 10-1 outsider that many believe has no place in the ring with the former undisputed light welterweight world champion from Nebraska.
Horn knows he belongs here, headlining a card in Las Vegas. He has the perfect person in his corner to strengthen that belief. If things get tough, Rushton has a simple message for the champion.
"Any pain you’ve ever felt, I’ve felt. Any emotions, I’ve felt. I can relate to you because I’ve felt all of these things. I wish I’d have met me when I was your age, but you have. You need a mentor, you need someone that has done the work and felt the feelings to bring the best out in you," Rushton said.
Rushton says Horn is "the guy next door that had a dream", and instead of wishing it will happen, he is doing something about it.
He is determined to prove the doubters wrong - there are plenty of them - and overcome every controversial obstacle that has been thrown his way.
With Rushton in his corner, there is no reason why the 30-year-old former school teacher can't shock the world.
"Glenn’s my rock, he mentally prepares me for the fights. He has taught me nearly everything I know, at least the base of everything I know," Horn said.
"He just gets in your head, and with some of the words of wisdom he gives you, I think people hear them all the time when he starts going, you go ‘that’s inspiring’ and you want to do something special.
"That’s what I went to, I’ve heard and I took it on board. I’ve got the work ethic to actually push myself and that’s what happens when you put two people together like that.
"I have always believed in myself since day one, since he said ‘I can get you to the Olympics in four years’ time, I can make you a world champion one day, and I can make you a legend’.
"These are things that he said from day one before I even had my first fight. I was like, ‘yep, let’s get on this ride. It sounds like an awesome ride to be on’.
"We’ve done the majority of those things but the thing we haven’t done is to become a legend in myself and that’s what we’re aiming to do with me winning these massive fights."
The one thing that stands out when it comes to the tenacious Horn's in-ring style, it is a never-say-die attitude that has constantly ended in him "delivering when it counted".
Rushton thinks "if more people did what [Horn] did, the world would be a better place". But the boxing world still doesn't give him the respect a win over Pacquiao should have commanded.
"That’s what drives him in a lot of ways. He wants to be really respected as a fighter," Rushton said.
"I never set out to make him a world champion, I set out to make him a legend. A world champion was just another rung on the ladder, it was not the top of the ladder, it was just another rung on the way up to becoming a legend.
"It’s just continually climbing steeper mountains until you say I can climb Mount Everest, I can climb any mountain in the world."
HORN v CRAWFORD
Sunday: Jeff Horn v Terence Crawford for the WBO welterweight championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas. TV: Live on Main Event from 10am.
*Caden Helmers is in Las Vegas as a guest of Duco Events.
