GWENT boxers Mo Nasir, Matthew Edmunds and Robert Turley launch their quest for Commonwealth Games medal glory later this week.

And Nasir, in particular, has a great chance of emulating Cwmbran's Jamie Arthur, who took gold at the last Games in Manchester four years ago.

He is rated number one in the Commonwealth at his weight and given a good draw has an excellent chance of going all the way.

The trio and the rest of Wales' boxers arrived in Melbourne having completed a 10-day training camp in Thailand.

For St Joseph's Boxing Club pair Nasir and Edmunds, Melbourne could be a springboard to greater things, but while their ambitions are very similar, their backgrounds are very different.

Nasir arrived in Newport with his family from Yemen as a nine-year-old not knowing a word of English and attended Pill Primary School.

Inspired by another Yemen boxer, a certain Prince Naseem Hamed whom he saw on television, he begged his dad Abdul Nasir to take him boxing and has never looked back.

Boxing gave him the opportunity to learn English, make new friends and keep him off the streets of Pill. He instantly took to the sport and after just three months had his first fight at Newport's Lysaght Institute. He said: "I had my first fights as an 11-year-old and won. Later I went to the Welsh Championships and schoolboy championships and haven't looked back."

Nasir, 20, will compete at light-flyweight in Melbourne and is bullish about his prospects. He recently won gold at the Commonwealth Games Federation Championships and was also champion at the 2005 Tammer Cup.

He said: "I want to be positive and target gold and hopefully I'll come back with something. There are some good boxers but training has gone well and I'm happy with my fitness."

Nasir is studying IT at the City of Newport Campus, Coleg Gwent, but said: "Boxing is my life and I want to make it my career, but I want to go to the next Olympics and, if I do well, maybe then go professional."

Despite Wales having three professional world champions, Arthur is Nasir's inspiration.

"He went to Manchester positive, not many people expected him to win gold but he did it."

Nasir is well aware how lucky he is to have found boxing and knows that without it his childhood in Newport could have been very different.

He said: "Boxing has kept me out of trouble and I think that any sport can do that.

"It has given me discipline, a lot of friends and a future. Some children reach 16 and they lose interest and they get into drink or drugs and everything changes, but I was determined not to go that way."

Nasir's stablemate and friend Edmunds is hoping to make up for his Manchester disappointment by winning a medal.

"In Manchester I lost in the first round and was massively disappointed," he said.

"I don't want that to happen again. Melbourne is a long way to go for one fight.

"The draw is massively important, perhaps more for me then others. I'm a slow starter but if I get past that first fight then anything can happen."

Edmunds, a window fabricator, added: "I got into boxing aged 9 when my dad took us to Torfaen Warriors Boxing Club and it has become my life.

"Moving to senior boxing was a big step. I had my first senior fight as a 17-year-old in Norway and lost. I found them faster, fitter and stronger. It took me a while to adapt but now I've proved what I can do in the senior ranks.

"If I come back from Melbourne with a medal who knows what opportunities it could open to me."

The other Gwent boxer in Australia, Robert Turley, is a lightweight from Blackwood. Also in the Welsh team are Chris Jenkins (flyweight), Darren Edwards (featherweight), Jamie Algar-Crees, Aaron Thomas (welterweight), Robert Ellery (light heavyweight) and Kevin Evans (heavyweight).