The irony is not lost on undefeated junior welterweight contender Regis Prograis, who was 16 when he and his family fled New Orleans and the ravages of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The disaster, which destroyed his family home and all of their possessions, made such a lasting impression on Prograis that he eventually had a tattoo inked on his chest with the date that Katrina changed his life: Aug. 29, 2005.
He and his family relocated to Houston, where Prograis wound up staying even when some of his family members finally returned to New Orleans, because it was better for his boxing career. The quality of the training and sparring was much better in Houston than in New Orleans.
Twelve years later, Prograis, like millions of others in and around the fourth-largest city in the United States, is currently living through another disaster; Hurricane Harvey decimated parts of Houston this week by dumping upward of 50 inches of rain in some areas, causing massive flooding and damage.
"The crazy thing is, I'm not even 30 years old yet, but I've been in two of these terrible storms already -- this one and Katrina," Prograis, 28, told ESPN on Thursday. "This is my second time around, so I guess I knew what to expect."
Prograis is fortunate that he, his wife and his two children -- a 1-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son -- are fine, as are other members of his family in the area. He lives in a second-floor apartment, so there was no major damage either from wind or flooding.
"We are safe," he said.
The severity of the storm trapped Prograis and his family at his aunt and uncle's house after they went over to visit and stayed to watch Saturday night's Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor pay-per-view fight. As flood waters continued to rise, Prograis and eight others ultimately stayed put in the house from Friday until Tuesday, unable to leave.
"We went over for the fight and got stuck over there," he said.
He said his aunt and uncle wound up having their house severely flooded, and they also lost two new cars. "The lake rose about 15 feet, and it's all in the house," he said. "We have boats, so that's how we were getting around."
Others in the Houston boxing community are also dealing with the storm, and doing OK.
Middleweight contender Jermall Charlo, an undefeated former junior middleweight world titleholder, lives just outside of Houston, in Sugarland. Although his house was spared severe damage, the same could not be said for the homes of three family members in the area.
"This one sucks," Charlo said. "But things definitely could be worse. My damage wasn't as severe. I think everyone in the city will be affected one way or the other. My street is a lake. You can't even see the top of some cars. People were being rescued in boats even in my neighborhood, and it's in a good part of town."
Charlo, who said at one point the water in his street was up to his chest, said the power was off for a few days. Although the water is receding now, it's going to be a long rebuilding process for those the storm hit the hardest.
"This is a strong city," Charlo said. "Our city just got to keep fighting and stay strong and help each other out."
Charlo's twin brother, junior middleweight world titleholder Jermell, lives five miles from Jermall -- and his home "got hit hard." At the moment, Jermell is in Los Angeles training for an Oct. 14 title defense against Erickson Lubin.
"I went out to Las Vegas for the Mayweather fight to enjoy it, not knowing that the storm was as bad as the news projected it to be," Jermall Charlo said.
He left his three sons with their grandparents, and they are safe, as is his mother, who was fortunate enough to live in a condominium a few floors up.
"Everything under her is flooded," said Jermall, adding that he donated $20,000 to relief efforts. "We want to make sure everyone is safe. This is only going to make me stronger as a fighter. My city got to keep praying and stay strong. Everyone in Houston has been affected by this storm. We'll rebuild this city. When it's ready, I want to fight right here in our city."
Trainer Ronnie Shields also lives in Sugarland and trains his stable of fighters at his Plex gym, including Jermall Charlo, junior middleweight world titleholder Erislandy Lara and light heavyweight Edwin Rodriguez.
Shields said his home and gym are OK, having suffered only minimal damage, and that Lara and Rodriguez avoided major damage as well.
"We're doing great, but we're lucky," Shields said. "It's terrible in a lot of places. There is so much water everywhere. I'm lucky because the gym is close to our area, and we can drive to the gym with no problem. But on the other side of Sugarland, you can't go nowhere because the flooding is so bad.
"There are so many people who lost their homes. It will be a while until people are right and get it back together. It's just devastating. One of my best friends lost his home. He has a two-story home, and the upstairs is fine but has to gut the downstairs. Has to throw everything out downstairs; everything. I have so many other friends who have lost everything."
Shields has several family members who live about 75 minutes away in Port Arthur, Texas, which got hit particularly hard.
"At least they are OK," Shields said.
Prograis said that when the water came into his aunt and uncle's house, everyone just went up to the second floor. But when the power went out "we had to make a run for it."
He was able to drive back to his place, often driving on open patches of grass rather than in the flooded roads, but at one point had to turn back to rescue his aunt, uncle and cousin, whose car got stuck in the water.
"We got them out of the car," he said. "They're OK, but when I got there, my aunt was freaking out. They got alligators in the water, but I'm not scared."
Prograis has seen a lot, between Katrina and Harvey. He said Katrina "was a day that changed my life forever. I was 16. I was a kid. To me, Katrina was worse than this. My house got destroyed. Everything you know is gone. I had to move to Houston. We had no choice but to leave New Orleans. During Katrina, we had six or eight feet of water in my house. My grandmother had 13 feet of water. It taught me you can't hold on to material things because God can take them away from you at any second. Mother Nature is strong, and there's nothing you can do. We lost all of our stuff in Katrina.
"I dealt with it. I'm not even 30 yet, and I been through two of the most tragic storms in U.S. history, but I learned you can't hold onto stuff."