He told his mother Diane that he'd had enough. "I was in a dark place," he said. "I  went, 'Mum, I've got two properties, a nice car and  a pension, so f***  this boxing. I'll go and earn £1,000 a week doing personal training.' She said, 'Don't be stupid.'  And she was right. Potentially there's some crazy money to be made. This is going to be fun now."

We'll know on May 31 if Mum knows best.

So what has happened to the two other medallists in GB's fistic Class of 2008? Super-heavyweight bronze winner David Price seemed to have a burgeoning pro future, knocking over a stream of hand-picked opponents until he unwisely ran into veteran world class American Tony Thompson, who twice summarily upended him. The giant Liverpudlian is currently trying to resuscitate his career in Germany.

David Price looked set for a promising pro future, but his career has hit the buffers ©Bongarts/Getty Images



Like Price, light-heavyweight Tony Jeffries also turned pro with Frank Maloney but suffered a series of severe hand injuries. He has now retired and moved to Los Angeles where he works there as a personal trainer and is shortly to open his own gym.

On a much grimmer note, another 2008 bronze medallist, the talented Irishman Darren Sutherland, who DeGale beat in the middleweight semi-finals, and was also managed by Maloney, was found hanged in his London flat soon after turning pro. He was said to be suffering from depression.

Another whose Olympic medal has been somewhat tarnished is Welsh welterweight Fred Evans, welterweight runner-up in London who last week was heavily fined for his part in an assault in a Birmingham lap-dancing club and now faces censure from GB Boxing, where he is on the elite squad for Rio 2016.

Evans, a former European champion, was the only 2012 male medal winner to remain "amateur" - bronze medallist Anthony Ogogo has joined US-based Golden Boy - preferring to enlist with the International Boxing Association Pro Boxing competition in which competitors can receive prize  money without losing their Olympic eligibility.

However, generally those winning lesser Olympic medals seem to have better prospects of becoming world champions. The man who inarguably is currently the best boxer in the world, Floyd Mayweather Jr, who won only a bronze medal at Atlanta in 1996 where he was outrageously robbed in his semi-final bout against a Bulgarian, is a perfect example of this.

Two British bronze medallists who won world crowns are Alan Minter, from Munich 1972, and Richie Woodhall, Seoul 1988.

Which brings us to Amir Khan.

It was almost 10 years ago that he won his Olympic lightweight silver medal in Athens as a bright-eyed 17-year-old who was Britain's lone ring representative.

Amir Khan won the light-welterweight world title in 2009, but he appears to have gone off the rails in the ring ©Getty Images



Subsequently, he converted that into a world title at light-welterweight in 2009, but lost it two years later to Lamont Peterson after five successful defences.

He also moved base to America to be coached first by Freddie Roach and now by Virgil Hunter.

Indeed, throughout his 31-fight career he seems to have gone through more trainers than Mo Farah's feet.

I have known and liked Khan since his amateur days, watching him become a shining beacon for racial harmony and community relations not only in home-town Bolton but throughout the land. I also attended his wedding reception in Manchester after his marriage to glamorous American Faryal Makhdoom last May.

But I confess serious concern for him now. He appears to have gone off the rails in the ring and out.

A fourth round KO by Danny Garcia in 2012 brought the third defeat of his career for a fighter whose jaw is frighteningly fragile. This has been followed by two less than impressive victories, the last of which was 13 months ago.

Danny Garcia floored Amir Khan in the fourth round of their 2012 fight, the third time the Briton has been defeated in the ring ©AFP/Getty Images



In this time he has made the headlines on the front pages more frequently than the back.

If you believe what you read in the tabloids, notably The Sun, most of his sparring has been of the extra-marital horizontal variety.

Alleged sexual romps with a variety of young ladies, resulting in headlines such as "Amir can't keep it in his pants" and "Love cheat Amir's night with model" are hardly conducive to maintaining that clean-cut image. Nor are they beneficial in the preparations for his ring return in Las Vegas on Saturday week against the dangerous American Luis Collazo.

Khan claims not to be distracted by what he insists are false tales of his supposed bedroom peccadilloes - or by his pregnant missus now furiously wading into the fray - but it is ironic that the one figure who has jilted him is Mayweather. The Money Man has reneged on a promise to fight him and instead that $6 million (£3.5 million/€4.3 million) purse goes to Argentinean Marcos Maidana, narrowly beaten by Khan in 2011.

Mayweather now reckons that Khan first needs to prove himself on the undercard by beating Collazo, last seen here eight years ago giving Ricky Hatton a hard time before controversially losing on points.

I fear for Khan. He stands at the crossroads of a turbulent career. Las Vegas is a city of spacious boulevards and few cul-de-sacs. But if he loses Khan will find himself in one of them, with that Olympic medal a sadly distant memory.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.