Eddie Hearn and Leo Atang sat across one another in Costa Coffee and plotted the future of the young heavyweight contender.

While the setting might not have been the stuff of fairy tales, they shared the same dream and now Atang is 6-0 (5 KOs) still only 19 and he’s not been a pro for a year.

A good amateur, he will inevitably be talked about in the same breath as the other young guns in the division, such as Moses Itauma, but Atang is his own man and on his own path.

“That’s the main reason I’ve gone [pro] early, because it’s going to give me that chance to have these learning fights now,” Atang told BoxingScene. “So then, when I get to them bigger fights and I’m still at a fairly young age, I’ve almost already got that seasoned pro experience.”

Atang decided to turn over because he was too young to fulfil his ambitions on Team GB. He would have had to wait another year but he’d already been speaking to now-managers Sunny Edwards and Anto Fitzpatrick and then had to sit down with the promoters.

He already knew that he was going to be trained by Ashley Martin, his amateur coach, and he’d had a bad hand before so he brought in Tommy McCormack to look after them. Add in his Uncle Dave and the team was soon rounded out, he just needed Hearn.

“I first actually met him straight after the Worlds [amateur championships] when I was 17. Just for a chat, not to sign or anything like that, just to see if he could support me as an amateur going forward and then, obviously, fingers crossed, turn pro with him and stuff.”
Of course, Atang has seen the professional path Hearn has guided Anthony Joshua along, and that would not have hurt Hearn’s ambitions to sign the youngster.

“You know what he’s saying isn’t just lies because he’s done it before,” Atang added. “That almost like he’s got that proof, that backing there, which makes him believe.”

Joshua was older when he turned over. He was also an Olympic gold medallist who made quick strides as a pro. Atang is not in the same hurry.

“Going early, turning pro early has definitely made me think I’m going to take it slow, not rush anything, get up the ladder, eventually, win the title by title instead of just rushing,” he continued.

“I know I’ve got a lot to learn and a lot of growing to do as well.”

Despite his size, he doesn’t feel like his “man strength” has come yet – “I think it comes later in your life, doesn’t it?” – and he felt good actually getting six rounds under his belt last time against veteran journeyman Viktar Chvarkou, having previously blasted everyone out within three rounds.

“It ticked a lot of boxes. It was like a good learning experience,” he said. “There’s plenty of positives to take from it, but also a lot of things I can learn from it as well.

“It’s 18 minutes of footage I can watch back and we’ve been working on the gym so I can go out next [time] and do it a lot better.”

Atang doesn’t just want to be patient inside the ring and with his career progression, but he wants to soak up everything along the way.

“It sounds cheesy, but just to enjoy it, it goes fast,” he said of the best advice he’s been given to date. “You know who told me? It was AJ who told me that. I mean, a lot of people have said it, but that was the one which kind of stuck with me when I first met him and he said that. And I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s cliche of course.’ But he was saying it’s going to go fast, you’ve got to enjoy it. It is true though. In a blink of an eye, nearly a year’s gone already in my pro career and I don’t know where the time’s gone.”

Does he have a direct line to AJ for advice?

“Nah, I’d probably do his head in,” he smiled.

But Atang is the latest in a long list of 21st century English heavyweights to emerge and he knows there is a pressure that comes with the lineage that started with Lennox Lewis, carried on through David Haye and then to the likes  of AJ, Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois, Fabio Wardely and, so everyone believes, Itauma.

“It does give you pressure because you want to live up to what they have done and stuff,” Atang admitted.

“I put pressure on myself because I know where I want to be. I know the potential, if everything goes right, where I can get to. So I want to do everything right to get there.

“So that’s where the pressure comes from.”

Already that first meeting with Hearn in Costa feels like a long time ago.

“It was a bit of a last-minute thing,” Atang recalled.

“I literally just got back [from a tournament]. He was at a show. And then we met at a Costa around the corner. It wasn’t like to sign or anything. It was talking about if I was to go pro, what it would be. But also, he wasn't pushing it to go pro either. He was saying, ‘If you want to stay amateur, by all means, get the experience and then see if we can support you.’”

Atang faces Fouad Shaili on Saturday night in Sheffield. The 40-year-old is 5-4-2 (3 KOs) and Atang wants a stoppage after going the distance last time.

One wouldn’t recommend going for a coffee once the bell rings.

“It was a bit of a last-minute thing,” Atang recalled.

“I literally just got back [from a tournament]. He was at a show. And then we met at a Costa around the corner. It wasn’t like to sign or anything. It was like, talking about if I was to go pro, what it would be. But also, like, he wasn't pushing it to go pro either. He was saying, ‘If you want to stay amateur, by all means, get the experience and that and then see if we can support you.’”

Atang faces Fouad Shaili on Saturday night in Sheffield. The 40-year-old is 5-4-2 (3 KOs) and Atang wants a stoppage after going the distance last time.

One wouldn’t recommend going for a coffee once the bell rings.