The queen of the ring met the Queen of the realm as boxer Nicola Adams collected her MBE at Buckingham Palace today.

The fighter, who trains at Huggy's gym in Spring Mill Street, off Manchester Road, Bradford, ended 2012 as the first female to win an Olympic boxing gold medal and was awarded her MBE in the New Year Honours list.

Wearing Kurt Geiger shoes and a black Phillip Lim jacket for her big day, she said: “I just didn’t want to get anything wrong meeting the Queen and receiving my MBE.

“I think it was a bit of a mixture of excitement and nerves rolled into one.

“Usually I’ll listen to music and my friends but today I was talking to some of the other guests receiving honours and they were just as nervous as I was. We were all calming each other down.”

The flyweight with a mega-watt grin has become one of the most in-demand stars of Team GB’s success at the London 2012 Olympics. She now hopes to compete at the Rio 2016 Games.

The 30-year-old said: “I have not achieved everything I want to achieve as a boxer. There is the world championships, and getting a gold medal at the Rio Olympics sounds good.”

She was watched during the awards ceremony by her proud mother Dee, who first took her to a gym at the age of 12, and her brother Kurtis.