Reese Lynch has, just about, come to terms with the fact he won’t ever fill the one major gap on his résumé as an amateur boxer.

Lynch is one of the best amateur fighters Scotland has ever produced but, he now realises, he’ll never be able to call himself an Olympian.

That reality has been dawning on him for quite some time but it was confirmed this week, with the beginning of the final Olympic qualification event in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, in which Lynch has not been selected by GB Boxing to compete.

Instead, Englishman Patris Mughalzai will occupy Britain’s one available spot in the light-welterweight category at this week’s qualifier and so with Lynch back home having departed GB’s Thai training camp on Monday, the Scot knows his Olympic dreams are well and truly over.

A year ago, merely qualifying for the 2024 Olympics, which begin in Paris in two months time, seemed a tame target for Lynch; instead, he was looking at becoming Scotland’s first Olympic boxing medallist since Dick McTaggart in 1960.

Such a lofty goal was far from unrealistic; with the Fauldhouse fighter having won bronze at the 2021 World Amateur Boxing Championships – the first Scot ever to win silverware at the event – and then becoming Commonwealth Games champion in Birmingham in 2022, Olympic success was far from out of the question.

Lynch went into Olympic year as the top-ranked British fighter in his weight category but luck was not on his side.

Last summer, the southpaw broke two ribs, leaving him side-lined for nine months.

The 22-year-old’s competitive return came in Lithuania in March and then, in only the second competitive outing of his comeback, Lynch was drawn to fight his GB Olympic rival, Mughalzai, in a tournament in Colorado, USA, last month.

Defeat to the Englishman was disastrous for Lynch’s Olympic prospects, the consequence of which being that the Scotsman will be at home this summer instead of fulfilling his Olympic dream.

It has, admits Lynch, been a tricky few months to navigate but he’s got his head round the fact he’ll never now have the chance to add Olympic silverware to his collection.

“It’s tough because I know I can beat people – on my day, when I’m fully fit, I believe I can beat Patris (Mughalzai) but it was just too short a timescale,” he says.

“It was frustrating being out for so long. I could have potentially been back earlier but at first, the physios thought it was just back pain but if I’d been sent for an MRI immediately, that would have made quite a difference and would have given me much more of a chance to get more competitions in.

“So it has been hard because I know that I’ve missed out on a big opportunity and I believe that I’m still the best in Britain. But fair play to Patris, he’s a good boxer – it’s just that I know I can beat him on my day.”

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Lynch’s omission from this week’s final Olympic qualifier means that, following the departure of his compatriot, Sam Hickey, from the GB programme last month, there will be no Scottish boxers in Team GB for the Olympic Games.

A slight crumb of comfort to Lynch, however, is that despite being heavily outnumbered by English boxers on the GB programme, he doesn’t believe he’s been the victim of any anti-Scottish sentiment when it came to selection decisions, although he does admit being in the minority can make things somewhat more difficult.

“It’s generally been fine but I do feel at times it can be harder being Scottish.

“When you’re boxing an English guy and you’ve got two English coaches in your corner and two English coaches in his corner, you do wonder because if I was Scottish and had a Scottish boxer fighting, I know who I’d want to win so surely the English guys feel that about the English guy”, he says.

“But having said that, the guys at GB have been good with me and I don’t feel like they didn’t want me to get to the Olympics – it was much more that my injury held me back.”

Now Lynch has put his Olympic dream to bed, he’s turned his focus elsewhere which is, unsurprisingly, the professional ranks.

Lynch is certain he will now turn pro, the only question being exactly when.

The move into the professional ranks is something Lynch has been anticipating for quite some time and he is, he admits, excited to test himself over longer bouts, as well as reunite with his brother, Ped, as his full-time coach.

“My initial plan had been to go to the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and then go pro, I’d never planned to go for the Olympics but when I got the invite to join GB, I knew it was a good opportunity for me,” he says.

“But now, I’m excited to go pro.

“It’s not so much that pro fights are a slower pace but more that I won’t need to rush because in the amateurs, it’s so fast-paced and if you’re down one round, you’re chasing the result. Whereas in the pros, you have much more time.

“And I’m looking forward to getting back working with my brother because he gets the very best out of me.”

Lynch, unsurprisingly given his amateur pedigree, has his sights set on achieving considerable success in the coming years.

The bar has been set high by Lynch’s compatriot and fellow Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Josh Taylor, who, in 2021, was crowned undisputed light welterweight champion of the world but Lynch is far from daunted at the prospect of following in the footsteps of one of Scotland’s greatest-ever athletes. 

“I want to follow in the footsteps of Josh Taylor because he’s done it all as a pro and I’m looking at world titles,” he says.

“I’m still young so there’s not a mad rush to push on but it’s about getting the balance because I don’t want to go backwards. I’ve been fighting top opposition internationally in the amateurs so I don’t want to be taking a step back and fighting people who aren’t as good because if you do that, you go down to their level. I won’t be rushing my move into the pros but I want to step up quite quickly.”