MANCHESTER, England - From winning gold at the 2016 Junior World Championships to a shock early career loss to Lennox Clarke and from a star-making win over Craig Richards to a disappointing defeat to Joshua Buatsi, Willy Hutchinson has been consistently inconsistent, both in and out of the ring.

Hutchinson’s upcoming fight with the interesting, but unproven Ezra Taylor (13-0, 9 KOs) will act as the chief support to Moses Itauma’s heavyweight fight with Jermaine Franklin at what is shaping up to be a sold-out Co-op Live Arena.

DAZN will broadcast the action from Manchester on January 24.

The fight offers The Ring’s No.10 ranked light heavyweight an ideal platform to prove once and for all that he has progressed beyond domestic level, but the 27-year-old is keeping a different goal at the front and center of his preparations.

“Just being happy,” the charismatic Scotsman told The Ring. “Just enjoy doing what I'm doing. I want to enjoy it because – as I've been through my career – I’ve absolutely hated what I'm doing. I don't know why I hate it. That's the honest truth. It's been horrible. It's been like I'm scraping my feet against the floor.

“I'm happy. I'm training twice a day. I'm eating well. I've got a dietitian on board. I've got a team running my social media and I've never been on my social media for five months. I've had time for me and my family. My family's never been as happy.”

The man responsible for Hutchinson’s contentedness is his trainer, Mirko Wolf.

Wolf saw Hutchinson (19-2, 14 KOs) win his World Championship gold medal and eventually ended up training him. That points defeat to Buatsi in September of last year persuaded Hutchinson that he needed to try something new, and he joined Shane McGuigan’s successful stable.

Hutchinson never truly settled in London, and a serious shoulder injury brought the partnership to an unfortunate, but natural end before it had really begun.

Wolf may not be among the most well known trainers in the sport, but he and Hutchinson have developed a genuine bond and – almost inevitably – they found themselves working together again.

In October, they got back to work with an impressive stoppage of Mark Jeffers, and Hutchinson believes everything is in place for him to finally fulfil his potential.

“There's a massive thing with me of trust, and I trust the man with my life,” he said. “You don’t need to have the greatest coach in the world, you just need the right coach. And for me, it's the mental side of boxing.

“It's not the boxing – I can adapt to anything – it’s the mental side of it, and if I'm right, I can conquer the whole world and it's mine. That's the big difference. But if I'm not right, it can all fall past me.

“He knows me inside out. He knows if I go to the toilet. If something's wrong, he'll know because I tell him. It's the honest truth. That's how it's got to be.”