Olympic profile: Billy Joe Saunders

Meet the youngest member of Britain's Olympic boxing team.

There are two priorities in Billy Joe Saunders' life.

The 18-year-old told Newsbeat: "Boxing really made my life. There's only one more thing important than boxing to me and that's my son."

The welterweight is a teenage dad and lives in a caravan on a gypsy site in Hertfordshire.

But he comes from a good fighting family.

He said: "Years ago my granddad used to fight in the boxing booths, my dad used to box in amateur fights, my brother's professional and I'm going to the Olympics."

The teenager thinks he is the first person from the Romany Gypsy community to compete at the games.

He won 49 consecutive fights on the way to qualifying for Beijing, including beating the European champion.

He also won the Commonwealth Championships in 2007 and the Strandya Cup earlier this year.

Role model

Back in Athens in 2004 it was another British teenager who set the boxing world alight.

Amir Khan was 17 when he won a silver medal.

He told Newsbeat: "I think Billy Joe's a brilliant fighter. He's just come out of the blue into the senior camp, and he's beating up these Russians and Cubans.

Billy Joe Saunders meets Olympic silver medal winner Amir Khan

"Going to the Olympic games I think he's one of the favourites to win a medal."

Being a father has made Billy Joe a mature teenager, while still being the joker of the British team.

But he acknowledges what the sport has done for him.

Recently WBO Cruiserweight champion David Haye said he thought boxing should be brought back into schools, to try to stop young people getting involved in violence on the streets.

Billy Joe agrees.

He said: "I don't know where I would have been now if I wasn't in boxing, probably in prison somewhere.

"Boxing's helped me out a lot, money, training, respect. Everything."