KEIGHLEY boxer Muhammad Ali has been told to savour his Olympic experience regardless of the outcome.

The 20-year-old flyweight will start his Rio challenge on Monday (4pm UK time) hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow Bury Amateur Boxing Club product Amir Khan.

The Bolton ace shot to stardom as a 17-year-old after claiming silver in the Athens Olympics of 2004 after learning his trade under Mike Jelley.

And the trainer has overseen the development of Ali – who has received a first-round bye in Rio – since the youngster began making the trip across the Pennines to his club seven years ago.

There are hopes that the former Bradford College pupil can earn a medal, with Ali believing he can even surpass Khan and claim gold.

But Jelley has urged caution, saying: "We hope he goes one better than Amir and wins gold but putting pressure on the kid doesn’t make him do any better. I've told him to just go out there and enjoy it – what comes, comes.

"Boxing is a hard game. He’s put the work in and he’s got to where he wanted to go and now he wants a gold medal – we all want that for him but if he doesn’t it’s certainly no disgrace.

"He can come back and have that memory that he has been an Olympian – nobody can take that away from him.

"It's all about going and enjoying it."

Ali's first-round bye means he will have an extra two days to prepare for Monday's last-16 bout, which will be against the winner of Venezuelan Yoel Segundo Finol's bout on Saturday with Dominican Leonel de los Santos Nunez.

If Ali progresses, possible quarter-final opponents on Wednesday are Bulgaria's Daniel Asenov – who he beat on his way to winning the European Olympic qualification event in Turkey – or Algerian Mohamed Flissi, with top seed Elvin Mamashzada – who beat Ali in last year's World Championship quarter-finals – a potential semi-final opponent.

Jelley remains optimistic for his protege but also realistic considering the competition he is up against it. Regardless of what happens, he insists the Keighley boxer, who first began at Eastburn Boxing Club and then Cleckheaton Boxing Academy, can already be proud of his achievements.

Jelley said: "There are 26 lads there and just one gold medal. You've got to have a little bit of luck, got to be feeling right on the day and have a few breaks.

"Ali has got the capabilities of winning it but anything can happen on the day. You don’t know what’s going to happen – it's the same for all 26 lads.

"Ali can say in another 20 years to his children, if he has them, 'I went to the Olympics in Rio in 2016.' How many can say that?

"There are ten lads there from Great Britain. Just to get to the Olympics is a fantastic achievement. Every kid dreams of it.

"Every kid dreams of winning the gold medal but there’s only one of the 26 going to do that."