GLASGOW boxer Sean Lazzerini hopes to follow in Charlie Flynn's footsteps to become the next big name in the Scottish fight game.

The 18-year-old, who practises at the Bellahouston Palace of Arts, returned from the Commonwealth Youth Games with a gold medal to show for his efforts in the -81kg category and now hopes to emulate Lanarkshire fighter Flynn, who used a silver medal at the youth games in the Isle of Man in 2011 as the spur for his golden moment at Glasgow 2014.

After the challenge of representing Scotland at the European Championships in Poland in November, Lazzerini turns senior next year while his long term goals include making the grade for the next Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast in 2018.

"I have always just kind of known Charlie from being in boxing," said Lazzerini. "I didn't see him before the Youth Games but he facebook messaged me to say good luck.

"The Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast is definitely a goal for me but that's quite a while away. Technically I could fight as a senior now, but I have the European championships as a junior in November if I get picked. But in January I will be a senior, so the head guards are coming off. That is when it gets real, when it gets serious."

Rather than the boxer's normal wiry build, Lazzerini's bulk betrays the fact that as recently as three years ago that he had his sights set instead on a career in rugby. It is a rather unusual career conversion, not least because only last year he was taking a break from the ring as he feared he was over-training.

"Maybe till I was about 14, 15 I wanted to be a rugby player, that was my thing," says the 18-year-old. "That was my sport maybe from about seven, I played for Hillhead/Jordanhill and wanted to be a centre or play somewhere else in the backline.

"I still love rugby - I just don't get a chance to play it that much any more. When I won a British title at boxing I realised I was a wee bit better at the boxing than I was at rugby.

"There is a saying, isn't there? That rugby is a thug's sport, played by gentlemen, while football is a gentlemen's sport, played by thugs.

"So you usually don't find rugby players going into boxing but they are the two sports that I really love. Originally my dad didn't want me to do boxing, he liked me doing the rugby.

"But now he is into the boxing more than I am. I would say rugby is a lot more dangerous. You get broken legs, broken arms, everything, while in boxing if the referee thinks you are taking too much treatment he stops it."

Lazzerini's gold medal winning performance was a lesson in economy, his semi-final then final, against a Samoan then Tongan opponent respectively, lasting a matter of minutes. "They must all have been running scared!" he said. "Both of my fights didn't last longer than the first round, maybe four minutes.

"I enjoyed it, though, there was a brilliant atmosphere with the rest of the team all cheering us on. I fought a Samoan and a Tongan, all local boys. They are big boys as you can imagine. But I did what I had to do against them and got the wins."

The last in a long line of fighters on both the Scottish and Italian strands of his family, Lazzerini may have fought for Scotland on the opposite side of the globe but his schooling in the sport in Glasgow has never left him.

"Most of my fights recently have been with the Scotland team but every time I go into the ring I represent Bellahouston," he says.