Erick The Eagle has his eyes on world titles

Erick "The Eagle" Ochieng believes it is just a matter of time before he wins a world title.

The Kenyan born 25-year-old recently defended the English light-middleweight title for the second time with a stunning fifth round stoppage of Ryan Toms, but he has set his sights much higher than this level.

In fact, he's been plotting his route to the top since before he had his first amateur contest.

"I keep telling people I'm already a world champion I've just not been crowned yet," Ochieng told HattonBoxing.

"Before I had my first amateur fight I saw a vision of myself becoming a world champion and that's why I'm so determined because I know where I'm going and what I want to achieve.

"Some people turn professional just for the sake of boxing, I've always known I'll be a world champion.

"It's like with driving, it helps when you know where you're going. If you know you going to come to traffic lights, then a roundabout before turning left you'll be confident about where you're going but if you don't know where you're going you'll get lost.

"I know where I'm going because I have a vision."

But the future wasn't always so clear for the affable Stoke Newington resident.

Soon after arriving in the UK from Kenya, Ochieng fell in with the wrong crowd and if it wasn't for boxing and his faith, his life could have gone down a completely different path.

"If I didn't have boxing and my lord and saviour Jesus Christ I would be locked up, career washed up," he said.

"I was a bad boy and I used to fight in the street and I got in with the wrong people. I wanted to be like my friends and I was on the wrong path.

"If I'd have carried on I'd have ended up like them. Some of them got shot, one of them got killed and some of them are in prison. When I let Christ in my life it changed the way I thought about things and it made me realise that if I didn't change my ways I'd have ended up where they were ending up."

With a new outlook on life, Ochieng joined the Haringey Police Community ABC in Tottenham but soon found that things were much tougher than he expected.

"I thought I was the baddest boy on the block so I jumped in the ring to start sparring and it wasn't long until I thought 'wow, this thing is hard'," he recalled.

"I was getting hit and the more I got hit the more angry I got but the more angry I got, the more I got hit. It took me a while to realise that the more you get angry, the more you lose your discipline. When you lose your temper, everything goes out of the window. Boxing taught me how to control my temper."

Ochieng, who was also a keen runner and footballer, soon grew to love boxing training and hasn't looked back since.

He turned professional in the autumn of 2009 and with exception of one blip against Castleford's Luke Robinson, everything has gone as planned.

In January this year he collected his first title as a pro when he stopped Liverpool's Nick Quigley in a fight of the year contender to take the vacant English crown and now he's set his sights on bigger and better things.

"We're probably going to be going for Jamie Cox and the Commonwealth title next," Erick revealed.

"At the moment the British is tied up. Brian Rose was supposed to be fighting Sam Webb but that's fallen through and he's going to fighting Vivian Harris so we've got to look at a different route.

"I'm waiting on Eddie Hearn [his promoter] to pull the strings and get the fight together."

Erick also wanted to thank his sponsors Addison Lee and Glen Insurance for helping his career progress.