World champion boxer Tammara Thibeault ready to be the one to beat in Birmingham

Tammara Thibeault's place in boxing has changed quite a bit since her quarter-final loss at the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer.

After unplugging from her sport following the Games and getting back to the drawing board, Thibeault enters the Commonwealth Games as the newly-minted middleweight world champion with a target on her back.

Going from chasing the top, to being at the top does not faze the 25-year-old, who trains out of Montreal.

"I'm very confident, but now I'm the one to beat. Obviously, I'm confident but I'm very aware of the position that I'm in and I can either be content with what I have or elevate the sport – and that's my goal," Thibeault told CBC Sports.

"There's always a pressure that comes with [being world champion], but that's exciting. That's the fun part, that's when things get interesting. I think I'm someone who does good under pressure and I don't run away from a challenge. I've always faced them full on and at this stage of my career, it's a different challenge, a new challenge, but I'm ready to face it."

Born in Saint-Georges, Que., and getting her start in the sport at the age of nine in Regina with her father, former CFL player Patrick Thibeault, her climb through the ranks has been gradual but impressive.

Thibeault won bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and followed that up with a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games, along with bronze at the worlds the very same year.

The Olympics became a dream manifested to reality in 2021 when she represented Canada in Tokyo.

But a loss to Dutch boxer Nouchka Fontijn in the quarter-finals kept her from earning a bronze medal and being the first Canadian woman to stand on an Olympic boxing podium.

"Obviously I was disappointed but I really