By Tom Degun

November 10 -  Rob McCracken, British Boxing’s new performance director, has promised that the committment to his professional boxers, like Carl Froch (pictured), will not stop him preparing the Olympic team properly for London 2012.

Froch, the world super-middleweight champion, who is trained by McCracken, is in perhaps at the most important stage of his career right now as he is currently participating in the high-profile Super-Six Tournament while other McCracken trained fighters – such as 6 foot 9 inch heavyweight Tyson Fury – have mega-fights looming in the near future.

However, McCracken – who will work with both Britain’s amateur men and women in the lead up to 2012 - insists that his role as as performance director, which was announced last week, will not play second fiddle to his commitments towards his professional fighters.

McCracken told insidethegames: "I will be working with the amateur boxers properly and not on a limited basis.

"I obviously spoke to Carl before I made the decision to take on the role and he's absolutely delighted about it.

"I will ensure that Carl spends time with the GB squad in Sheffield [where Britain’s podium squad train] and that will be fantastic for the young guys who will get a chance to see how a real world champion trains and it will hopefully inspire them to get to that level."

McCracken (pictured) also revealed that despite Britain's poor showing at the recent World Championships in Milan, he is very excited at the prospect of coaching the the team to medals at the London 2012 Olympics and the pressure that comes with the task.

He also revealed that he hopes to stay on to prepare the team for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The former amateur and professional boxer said: "I'm relishing the challenge of winning medals at the 2012 Games and really motivated to do well but I’ve got a contract that goes beyond that date and I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

"Pressure is just one of those things you have to learn to cope with at this level and the one thing you can be sure of is that I’m going to give this 100 per cent."

And despite rumours that Terry Edwards could make a stunning return to the British team, McCracken refused to be drawn on the issue.

He said: "I'm just going to come in a have a look at what's going on right now then see if changes need to be made for the good of the team."

Derek Mapp, the executive chairman of the BABA told insidethegames: "It's fantastic to have a world class trainer such as Rob leading our team.

"The final team to take us into 2012 has not yet been completed as there are still one or two names we are looking at but Rob was the obvious candidate for this role.

"He is a guy who knows what is required to win on the highest stage and I have no doubt he will lead us to success at the London 2012 Olympics."

European champion Luke Campbell, winner the prestigious Ken Jones 2009 Amateur Boxer of the Year award at the Boxing Writers' Association, believes it is a move in the right direction for British Amateur boxing.

Campbell said: "Rob is a great guy and I look forward to working with him.

"It will be great to have someone like Carl down at the gym and now is a very interesting time for British boxing."

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