This summer is something years in the making for Penn State student Katongo Mulenga.

It's something others said was impossible, and it's only one step in Mulenga's staircase to greatness.

"I don't believe in something called impossible," Mulenga said.

Ever since coming to America from his native Zambia, Mulenga has had to deal with doubters, doubters who said he couldn't do it.

They didn't understand the dream.

See, in 2002, Katongo, or "K," as he's called by friends and coaches, walked into a gym on a mission: he wanted to box.

He walked through the door that day without a single cent to his name and left with a plan to suceed at Penn State.

"I sold them on it," Mulenga said. "I told them I was world-champion material."

Over the next few years, including time spent here at Penn State, Mulenga would mold himself into a fighter who has a chance to succeed, on any level. A fighter who doesn't believe in the impossible.

"They say that I taught him a pro style," Penn State boxing coach William Bolar said. "I say I taught him the art."

Either way, Mulenga has developed into a skilled boxer. He's a part-time student here at Penn State so he can't compete for the club team, but he's aiming to go pro in 2007.

While not eligible to help the team by competing in matches, he offers what he can do, using his experience to help out the team members and as a sparring partner when he is called upon .

He's a slick, finesse boxer who knows how to hit and not get hit.

"There is a saying in boxing," Mulenga said. "Fight good tonight, look good tomorrow."

He fights an intelligent fight, knows his skill set and knows his limits.

"I'm not a knockout artist. You'll always run into somebody who's a stronger fighter than you, somebody who's a faster fighter than you," Mulenga said. "An intelligent fighter will maximize their assets in the ring."

"He has all the tools to be great," Bolar said. "He'll take them far."

Not only has Mulenga developed into an intelligent, skilled boxer, he's a student of the game and a student of some of the best, like Floyd Mayweather and Roy Jones Jr.

"He loves for it as I do," said Bolar, a former professional boxer. "We can talk on the phone for hours about it."

A few weeks short of embarking on an ambitious summer, during which he'll be fighting about every other week, Mulenga says the competition will be about making a statement.

Four years after starting his journey, Mulenga is set to make that statement to the boxing community.

"I want 2007 to be my coming out party. I want to show that I'm HBO, pay-per-view, Showtime material. I want to take up where the greats -- Sugar Ray Leonard, De La Hoya -- left off. I want to create my own legacy," Mulenga said.

With high aspirations come skeptics, and with skeptics normally come the shadows of doubt. But Mulenga has the right mindset to carry on.

He doesn't believe in something called impossible, and had some famous words for his critics: "I can accept failure. What I can't accept is not trying."

Now, less than a year from going pro, Mulenga has come a long way from his home country of Zambia and from his first experience with boxing.

"The first time I fought, I was 12 and it was in Buffalo. My friend introduced me to the idea of going to a community gym," said Mulenga, "They put the headgear and gloves on me, and I started fighting. The guy punched me right in the mouth, it was all bloody. I was like, 'Nah.' "

Now, on the verge of embarking on a summer during which he plans to make a name for himself, Mulenga reflected on his journey.

"It's funny how life works out," he said, "that a sport I thought I didn't want to do, is the one I have the most passion for."