In the darkness, he thought about Sydney.

For a split-second, maybe half the time it takes for a right cross to send a prizefighter tumbling towards the canvas, he thought about the biggest moment of his career and the nerves he had felt, then as now, waiting to go on. He pushed the disappointment of his Olympic loss out of his mind. That was then. This was now, and he needed to concentrate.

The muscles on his six-foot-two, 220 pound frame coursed with energy and excitement, rippling like a flag in a steady breeze.

He had faced the world spotlight in the Olympics and growled at it. He was undefeated in his first few professional fights and earning his way up the heavyweight ladder, but today was big and Calvin Brock knew it.

But it wasn’t just cameras, lights and spectators through the wings and on the other side of the darkness – it was a dream.

He had heard "You can’t do it," as often as you hear your name and he kept going.

The music tore through the silence suddenly like a rock breaking through the surface of a lake.

He stepped out. And that June night, before his hometown Charlotte crowd, world heavyweight contender Calvin Brock put on a tap show no one would ever forget.

One dream down, one to go.

"Tap dancing has been my childhood dream even before I wanted to box," Brock says, excited to talk about his out-of-the-ring passion. "I had a hiatus late in 2001 and into 2002 after my first promoter went out of business. I started attending the King David Christian Conservatory and Salvatore Messina took me in and gave me private lessons. It was a dream to do that, to have that recital."

"It was nerve-wracking. It wasn’t quite like the Olympics, though I thought about the games, because that’s my livelihood, but I was nervous."

Now in a modest training facility nestled near the Allegheny mountains in Pittsburgh nearly three years after his tap dance recital, Brock is training for his other life dream – to win and unify the heavyweight championship of the world.

His thunderous blows meet the punching bag, resonating like golfball-size hail thudding into a tin roof, the unmistakable drum beat of a fighter and training.

"This is my calling," says Brock, who at 24-0 is one of the most promising heavyweights, "This is my life."

He is at once every bit the kind of man you’d expect to be a professional fighter -- barrel chested, agile and glaring at the bag because he knows nothing stands that his fists can’t bring down.

If you only met him once, thundering down punches on a helpless opponent, you’d know immediately that Calvin Brock is the consummate boxer.

You'd be wrong.

He's the exception.

In a sport where you can find broken down and flat-out broke former champs faster than you can say “Mike Tyson,” Calvin is anything but the typical boxer. He's a college graduate --- University of North Carolina Charlotte -- and a finance major. He manages his own money and his own mind.

“I don’t think about going broke; I’m the person in charge of investing my money,” Brock says. “I don’t have to worry about anybody else doing things not in my personal interest. When I make it, I’m not going to go broke, spending like there’s no tomorrow.”

He talks in the rushed, excited tone of a man who knows his best days remain ahead of him and whose only regret is that he can’t get there faster. He talks of his love of tap-dancing, of business, of his role as a boxer in God’s plan.

But the story of Calvin Brock isn’t solely measured in the pounds per square inch he packs in every punch. Thoughtful and articulate, he could have a distinguished life never setting foot in the ring, yet he exposes himself to life-ending or life-altering injuries on a daily basis.

"I gave my lift to Christ," Brock says of why he chooses to box instead of further his career in banking with Charlotte's Bank of America. "I asked God what to do and he told me he wanted me to box, to be a positive role model and let his light shine through me. I know if God wants me to do something, I won't be hurt."

In a sport dominated by the endless peccadilloes of its headliners and whose champions have all the Q-rating of your local bus driver, Calvin Brock isn’t just a promising contender for the heavyweight belt.

He’s the sport's next generation.

“Heavyweight is the division that brings the light to boxing and makes the sport strong,” Brock says. “It needs time for me and other young heavyweights to come up and allow older guys and older title holders to fade away. Don’t doubt it, the draw will come back to the sport. It’s just a seasonal thing. Just like the stock market. Before Tyson unified the heavyweight belt, it was waning. He unified it and made it strong. Now his era has faded. Boxing needs a unified undefeated champ. That’s going to be me."

Of course, Brock has always been a little different.

He received his first boxing gloves for Christmas in 1983 at the age of eight. While other kids in basketball-crazed Charlotte, N.C. took up hoops or football, he pursued boxing. He worked relentlessly with his father, Calvance and credits his mother Alean as well for the support to be where he is today. When Calvance thought his son wasn’t receiving enough training, he ordered videos, learning the material and then teaching it to Calvin though he himself had never boxed.

Calvin took quickly to the sport. His only losses in his early career were his friends.

"They didn’t like getting hit," says Brock, the owner 20 professional wins by way of knockout. "I can’t blame them"

They’re not alone.

He rose through the amateur ranks and in 2000 realized another of his lifelong dreams – to fight in the Olympics. Little went right for Calvin in the Olympics. He was trained too hard, he and teammates contend, and America’s favorite to earn the gold didn’t even medal.

But don’t’ think he didn’t learn his lesson in that disappointing Sydney fight. He hasn’t lost since.

"I was predicted to win the gold … many thought I would, me included," Brock recalls, his voice somber for the first time all afternoon. "There was a lot of controversy and a lot pessimism when I became a professional afterwards. I went from being chosen the one to make it to being picked as the one to least likely to succeed. They said I couldn’t punch, that I wasn’t going to become a contender, that I didn’t train hard.

"But I proved them wrong. Proved them all wrong. I erased the stigma that was on me. I’m going to be heavyweight champion of the world."

Now as he stares down Jameel McCline, a 6-6, 270 lb. brawler who has fought for a heavyweight championship three times in his career, Brock brims with confidence, possibly a win away from a heavyweight title shot. The two square off Saturday night on ESPN’s first-ever pay-per-view boxing telecast, Brock coming off an impressive TKO of Clifford Etienne and McCline coming off a loss to Chris Byrd.

"I’m in great shape," Brock says, ending the interview to head to his afternoon training session. “I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been. I’m going to win. And when I win, anybody with sense knows that I’m gonna knock them out. When I'm in great shape, I punch hard and I'm better prepared than ever. When I land on somebody’s head, they go. If he's getting hit, he’s going to go. I'm going to win."

But make no mistake, for Calvin Brock, it’s not just another fight. It’s another step to another dream.