THE star-studded BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards bash or an audience with Scotland's unofficial sports personality of the last 12 months?

You decide. "What's all this about the awards, man?" says Charlie Flynn, with that trademark hint of mischief, as he prepares for tonight's pro debut. "Who's going to the awards? They are all going to my fight!"

Some 12,000 are expected at the Hydro for the Beeb's glamour occasion, but for a while at least the atmosphere there is likely to be only second best in Glasgow, outdone at a crammed main ballroom at the city's Thistle Hotel. This is the venue where Flynn, one of Scotland's new nat- ional treasures, will be taking to the ring for his first professional bout. They will be there to see the Mailman - so named because of his day job at a post office sorting depot - deliver over four rounds against Ibrar Riyaz, a durable 29-year-old from Reading who has been stopped just three times in 74 previous bouts.

"It is going to be an absolute sell-out, we couldn't get enough tickets out, the place isn't big enough," said the 21-year-old Commonwealth Games lightweight gold medallist from Wishaw. "It is madness. I've been doing so many interviews with so many people that support has gone through the roof. Everybody is getting behind it. I don't think they have had a sell-out like this for a long time at one of the Christmas shows. People are just approaching my manager Alex Morrison and buying tables, people who don't even know me. The website has been going non-stop."

While others such as Eilidh Child and Lynsey Sharp in athletics or Alex 'Tattie' Marshall in bowls grasped their moment in 2014, there are few, if any sportsmen on this island who have had a more transformative year than this wee guy. While fight fans purred about his technique, the wider Scottish public fell in love with his gallus one-liners and gift of the gab.

Having now joined forces with two of the best in the business in manager Morrison and promoter Eddie Hearn, Flynn's current employers at the Post Office granted him the last few weeks off to concentrate on his pro debut, compensated amply by the PR campaign he headed, urging customers to "box clever" by posting early for Christmas.

In a matter of weeks, the mailman will give up his job for good to devote himself to boxing, with no doubt a decent sideline in media and public speaking, but the nickname will remain.

"It has been mental," Flynn said. "Jim Watt said in one of the papers that he believed I could go all the way and that is a huge honour but I like the wee things. I have got letters from people, sometimes elderly people with disabilities, and they were saying it was the proudest moment of their lives when I won gold. You don't realise that they are all watching and it is great to see the effect you can have. I was doing a project the other day called Get Inspired [with the BBC at Emirates Arena] and I am seeing all the young lads and talking to them about everything. Normally they don't listen to anybody. But they do to me, because I am talking to them like a normal person, not like a lecturer or something.

"I will be back in [the sorting office] for a couple of days just before Christmas and it will be good just to see everybody. But before long I will be moving out, just to focus on my boxing. If you want to be the best you need to commit to the lifestyle. It is everything or nothing."

Another integral part of this particular package is respected trainer Peter Harrison, who in addition to organising three punishing sessions a day, has arranged sparring sessions with son Scott, and former world champion Willie Limond. Scott may be a controversial figure but Flynn has been privileged to learn from a man who was a formidable fighter in his pomp.

"We have only been training two months properly, doing a lot of things that aren't necessarily boxing related just to build up physical fitness and mental toughness, but that is what it is all about, to get your body hardened for the pros," said Flynn. "Already there has been a huge difference in my core strength and I am punching more solid. Everything is going according to plan. It's just a case of taking the weight off at the end, sharpening up, then I am going to be ready to rock.

"Scott has been great with me. He has had the highs and the lows of boxing, so just to have him in the ring and talk to him about different things has been a big help. I was never at any of his fights - I was too young - but he was unbelievable at his peak. His strength, his power, his mental and physical endurance is amazing. Things happen - and that is it - but he has been brilliant. Outside the gym is nothing to do with me but inside the gym he has been top drawer."

While Morrison feels Flynn could be fighting for titles within two years, Watt is more circumspect with the timescale, but the man himself is in no hurry.

"I don't really know, we haven't really got a long term plan," he said. "We need to sit down and talk it all through. But I am not going to fast-track myself and jump into water that is too deep for me. I am going to take baby steps, one at a time. I am still young, I am only 21, and in the pro game that is a baby. But I am ready to learn and move up the ladder, however fast, however slow. Whatever comes I will roll with the punches."

Riyaz is a perfect introduction, "a wee strong guy who ticks all the boxes", while also on the card is a full professional debut for Joe Ham, another Commonwealth Team member.

"Before too long, Josh [Taylor] will probably go pro as well," said Flynn. "Scotland is a tiny country but it produces some of the best fighters in the world."