Danny's real fight

"He had died over nothing, about somebody trying to prove he was bad.

"It was hard seeing people I knew fall to the temptation of easy money and dying for it. They got their money and then had to watch their backs."

Williams recalls having a handgun coolly levelled at his head.

"It happened when some guy gatecrashed a club," he said. "He was screaming and suddenly I saw a flash of silver in his hand and realised that he had a gun.

"I thought he was going to shoot so I dived to the ground and, luckily, a few other people managed to wrestle with him."

Williams, who converted to Islam in 1999, believes the fact he remained focused on three hours' training each day while holding down full-time jobs in Top Shop at Oxford Circus and as a nightclub doorman, despite such horrific distractions, is a credit to his upbringing. Before he was born, his father Augustus, 60, dreamed he would have a son who would become a world champion boxer.

With no family history, he started teaching Danny the basics of boxing at five and, when he was eight, enrolled him at the Half Moon gym.

But the young fighter hated hitting people and being hit and would miss training. He used to pour a glass of water over his head to simulate the sweat, but by the age of 13, he had come around to his father's thinking.

The only subject he excelled in at Tulse Hill Secondary School was maths - his father told him he would need it to count all his money.

Now with two daughters, Nubiah, five, and Maliha, 12 weeks, Williams is to marry Zoe, 30, legally after an Islamic ceremony three years ago. He also plans to move from Peckham.

Williams, who still travels by Tube, explained: "I still want to show my face in the area I was brought up in - it is important kids there see that hard work can bring the good things in life as well, but I had to be strong to keep out of trouble and I don't want to put my own children through that."