Boxing: Champion's hallmark in Bojado's silver quest

A few hours before Lennox Lewis ensured for himself a much more honourable ride into the sunset, Francisco Bojado was discussing, with vast charm, the dawn of a career which some believe has the potential to match those of great Hispanic fighters like Roberto Duran and Julio Cesar Chavez

He is currently 9-0 as a pro, holds the World Boxing Council youth junior welterweight title and, at the age of 18, is building the reputation of a gifted ring tactician whose left hooks land like the kicks of a mule. Born in Guadalajara, raised in east Los Angeles, he qualified for the Mexican national team as a 14-year-old, overwhelming a 21-year-old opponent, and when he was eliminated from last year's Sydney Olympics he was so distraught he immediately left for the airport. "I couldn't stand to be there as a loser, and it was the worst day of my life." It didn't help that the scoring had been a travesty.

He was first attracted to boxing when he saw the trophy cupboard of the brother of a friend. "It was filled with so much silver," he recalls. "Since that day I have hardly been out of the gym. I just wanted to win more and more trophies and it was great news when I asked my trainer how long the boxing season went on and he told me, 'it doesn't stop.' I have a lot of trophies now."

Gary Shaw, the chief executive officer of the promoters Main Events, who have Bojado under contract, says dryly: "It was a bad day for us when 'Panchito' learned that the point of professional boxing was to earn money rather than trophies." But then for some, and they are usually to be found among the best, the allure of the silver never goes. It was interesting, so soon after meeting the latest hope of boxing, to hear Lewis complain that he was short of a belt after beating Hasim Rahman to win back the World Boxing Council, International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organisation titles. Lewis wanted to know what happened to the "linear belt", the one handed to the man who beat the man in a sequence running all the way back to John L Sullivan.

Surprisingly enough, the three-times world champion had yet to worry about the whereabouts of his $10m (£7m) cheque.