"I'm still here and still chasing it!" Ten years after winning Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi Callum Johnson continues to strive for glory in the ring

Callum Johnson clutched his gold medal to his chest and stared at the ceiling. The Boston fighter had just achieved his lifetime ambition, winning Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi.

But there was no desire to pop champagne corks and hit the down to celebrate. Instead, the light heavyweight wanted to be alone as he prepared to do battle again, this time with his own thoughts.

"People always ask me about after, what I did that night. People keep saying 'I bet you were buzzing'," Johnson told The Standard.

"The fact is I wasn't. I laid on my bed in a dark room with my medal on my chest staring at a dark ceiling. I must have laid there for eight hours, all through the night. It was like an anti-climax, a depressing feeling.

"I'd been so high and I'd achieved what a lot of people thought was impossible for me or for somebody from where I'm from to do. I did it and it was a weird one."

After the adrenaline had gone, Johnson - then 25 - was left to reflect upon the future, the great unknown, with his family 4,000 miles away in their Benington home.

But knowing his loved ones were tuning in - on a rare occasion his late dad Paul wasn't ringside - had only spurred Johnson on that day.

"My dad used to come with me, even when I was abroad. It was one of the very first times I didn't have my dad there, but I knew he was there watching on the TV and I was always on the phone," said Johnson.

"That also worked in my favour as it gave me that added motivation knowing they were watching the TV. It was like I had to make sure I did the job as I knew I had to do it for them.

"It was my decision for my dad not to go. He was gong to come but I did say to him I'll be in the athlete's village and not able to see you. I'll be thinking what's my dad up to, so I said stay at home and enjoy it with the family. It paid off."

The two were on different continents but they shared a moment - or at least almost did - when Johnson stared at the TV camera and declared 'that's for you dad' seconds after his victory.

By chance, Paul happened to be out the room at that moment. But when he returned and was told what he'd missed, he was forced to wipe away a tear.

That moment took place on October 13, 2010 - a decade ago today - and it changed Johnson's life forever.

He turned pro just weeks after his 8-1 victory over Northern Ireland's Thomas McCarthy in India and securing gold for Scotland, making his debut by stopping Phillip Townley at Glasgow's Braehead Arena.

Since then Johnson has won the Commonwealth and British light heavyweight titles and knocked down unified light heavyweight champ Artur Beterbiev.

The Russian returned to his feet and claimed the victory - the only defeat of Johnson's 19-fight pro career. But only one of those two has gone on to have a street named after them on Boston's Fenside estate, and it's not Beterbiev.

But despite the many accolades and the celebrity status which followed that gold medal victory, ambition still burns inside Johnson.

"My career has been very up and down since Delhi," he added.

"It's not been the smoothest of rides. It was a big wake up call because after I won gold and I was getting all this press and publicity about turning pro, I genuinely thought I'd cracked it and my life was going to be how I imagined it.

"Here I am 10 years later driving to Manchester (where he trains under the watchful eye of coach Joe Gallagher) and I'm still chasing that dream. It's hard and sometimes things don't go to plan.

"A lot of people say things happen for a reason. Maybe this is my plan but I feel like things haven't gone to plan, but at the same time I'm still here and still chasing it. I've still got a few years left in me and if I don't achieve what I want then it will never be down to a lack of trying."

Johnson's scheduled European title fight against Igor Mikhalkin failed to materialise earlier this year as the COVID-19 pandemic put plans on hold across the globe.

Talk of fighting fellow Brit Joshua Buatsi currently refuses to go away, so what's next for Callum Johnson?

"That's the million dollar question," he said. "I genuinely don't know.

"There's a lot of stuff in the press about me and Buatsi. The good thing about it is people are talking about me. I'm still relevant and one of the most talked about names in British boxing.

"There's a lot of positives to look at, but a lot of it is fake news. It's a horrible game, people say this and that but the facts are I genuinely don't know what's happening.

"I'm supposedly getting a date at the back end of November, early December to get back out there this year. Then hopefully a big fight can be made with me and Buatsi, but as it stands I'm just waiting."

But while Johnson waits to see what's next, he still has time to reflect upon that golden night in Delhi 10 years ago.

"It's a feeling I can't explain. I look back at the video now and I'm in tears. Talking about it now makes me feel emotional," he confessed.

"It was a very special feeling and one you can't explain unless you lived it. You can't imagine it.

"At that time everything I'd done in my life was all for those three weeks, my whole boxing life.

"Nothing else mattered. Just to go there and do it, I always knew I could. But actually doing it was a relief, it was joy, so many emotions rolled into one.

"It's quite sad really because I'll never experience that again, regardless of whatever I might win in the future of boxing. It was a very, very special moment, not just for me but everybody involved.

"It's nice in one sense that we've had that moment, but also sad knowing it'll never happen again. It's a weird one."