THE words emblazoned across the back of his training vest are said to have come from Mark Twain, and they help to explain Luke Blackledge’s remarkable journey from prison to the brink of the Commonwealth title.

“It’s not the dog in the fight, it’s the fight in the dog,” are the words, adapted and adopted by Alex Matvienko’s gym in Bolton, where Blackledge has been training for the past year.

It is a phrase designed to illustrate how mental strength and determination will triumph over sheer physical strength.

Determination is something that Darwen fighter Blackledge has become renowned for on the British boxing scene.

It is why he faces Sheffield’s Liam Cameron tonight at King George’s Hall in Blackburn arguably as favourite to become Commonwealth super middleweight champion for the first time in his career.

He is still only 24, but already there have been troubled times in his life.

Jailed as a teenager, he needed no shortage of willpower to emerge from prison and turn his life around.

It is a quality that has served him well since taking up boxing at the age of 18. Some fighters may have faster hands, some may be more skilful, but none are more determined than Blackledge.

“Jail isn’t the best place but if you’re there, you’ve got to deal with it,” he reflects.

“It’s like if you’re in a hard fight and you’re losing, you’ve just got to grit your teeth and get through it.

“Being in jail is the same. You’ve got to grit your teeth and get through it, sort yourself out and don’t end up back there.

“When I came out, I started boxing. It was just to keep me off the streets.

“I was getting into trouble, fighting, getting arrested, so I took up boxing to keep me away from the streets.

“I was young so as soon as I got into boxing it got me on the straight and narrow, and taught me a bit of respect.

“Now I never even think about doing the things that I was doing back then.”

If the desire to has change his ways has always been a driving force, so too has the influence of his family.

His real name is Luke Robinson, but the presence of another boxer with the same name meant that he took on the surname of his father when he turned professional.

His late dad is also commemorated by one of the many tattoos that he sports.

“Every tattoo has a meaning,” he says.

“The glove on my arm is the boxing glove, and the one on my back is about my dad, the cross, because he passed away.

“On my chest is my daughter, she’s two. My family motivate me to do well.”

A Blackburn Rovers fan who has previously lived in Accrington and Clitheroe, Blackledge has left no stone unturned in his preparations for tonight.

The giant tyre lying at the side of the gym illustrates the sort of strength tests he has had to come through in training.

It does not look easy to lift.

“Tell me about it,” he laughs.

Blackledge’s route to professional ranks was an unconventional one, coming not from amateur boxing but from the unlicensed semi-pro circuit.

“I started at the Kokoro boxing gym in Accrington and had 60 unlicensed fights out of there, I only lost two of them,” he says.

“In a way it might have been better for me than the amateurs because it was 10oz gloves, no headguard.

“I learned a lot.”

His professional record stands at 18 wins, two draws and two defeats.

Three years ago he travelled to Denmark to shock former world title challenger Mads Larsen, before his second trip to the country ended in his first defeat.

A late change of opponent saw him face Swede Erik Skoglund for the world youth title, and lose controversially on points.

But the experience did him good, and helped to get him noticed as more offers came his way.

A bout in Russia fell through and Blackledge turned down offers from the United States and Nigeria, but he did travel to Germany to spar with world champion Arthur Abraham.

For this fight Blackledge has sparred with Rocky Fielding, the man who knocked him out inside a round on his only previous Commonwealth title challenge 17 months ago.

But the East Lancashire man puts that result down to circumstances.

He was due to fight Paul Smith two weeks later but that bout had fallen through by the time a short-notice opportunity to face Fielding arose.

“I took it on two days’ notice and I did 16 rounds of sparring in the same week because I was supposed to fight two weeks after that,” he said.

“Sixteen rounds of sparring in the same week - you ask any pro fighter and that’s a big no no.

“But to be honest that defeat didn’t bug me at all.

“I thought the fight had been stopped because I fell over the ropes. My back was turned, I wasn’t actually facing Rocky and when I spun round that’s when he clocked me one.

“If I’d been knocked out while I was fighting, I might have thought he outclassed me.

“But it was just a mistake I made and one of those things.

“This time the sparring has all gone right. It’s a really even matched fight, but I’m boxing in my home town with my home support.

“The first time I fought in Blackburn the place sold out and it was unbelievable.

“I just can’t let the pressure get to me.

“If I follow my gameplan it should pay off.”