South Africa's Kevin Lerena will defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) bridgerweight world title on Thursday on home soil against Serhiy Radchenko - a full-circle moment for a fighter who has toiled around the world and sparred with Tyson Fury.
Lerena, who has a pro record of 33 fights, 30 wins (14 by KO) and three losses, became the interim WBC bridgerweight world champion when Lawrence Okolie vacated the title in October last year.
Arguably one of South Africa's most accomplished active combat athletes, together with UFC middleweight world champion Dricus du Plessis, Lerena is on a mission to grow more stars within boxing - which he still views as the country's main combat sport - pointing to its proud history.
Lerena told ESPN: "In South Africa, Dricus has exploded on the MMA scene [locally] and worldwide, but in boxing, we've got a little bit more of a platform for more than one person.
"I think there's definitely a space for developing the sport... It's no secret I'm involved in developing the sport.
"I've got my own promotion which I'm an ambassador for, Aquila Boxing Promotions. We've got [trainer Peter Smith] that's got his own promotion that he's coming out with... and Peter's brother, Sean who has also got his promotion that he has started."
Peter Smith added, pointing to the ring inside his gym: "Kevin and I go fight in the UK. We've got 60,000 people to walk out to. You don't understand. You see a ring like this and 60,000 people.
"We want to bring people back to sport to come and support South Africans... If we're all looking through the same glass, we're going to end up with guys that the youth can look up to, like they look up to Kevin."
Now 32 years old, Lerena added that he was just as hungry for success as when he first discovered boxing in his teens and came across his trainer, Smith.
He said: "I first found the sport of boxing at about the age of 15, 16. When I was playing rugby at school, I'd always train boxing.
"I enjoyed the element of the fight sport, but I only really got into the sport when I turned 17 or 18 - when I joined Peter. I turned professional at 18 years old and the rest is history.
"I never, ever thought I'd be a world champion. I was just trying to get through my first few fights winning and then when you've got a belief in the system that you've been taught, in my trainer, you've got an ability to learn and the confidence grows with it."
Lerena had the opportunity to spar with one of the boxers he admires most, Tyson Fury, after the pair struck up a relationship when Fury fought Chisora for a third time on the same card which saw Lerena lose to Daniel Dubois in 2022.
Lerena recalled: "I was co-main event when Tyson Fury fought Derek Chisora, so we struck up a relationship there. He asked me if I would come into camp when he fought [Oleksandr] Usyk. That's how we struck up the relationship."
Commenting on how Fury was able to succeed despite lacking the chiseled appearance of other world champions, Lerena said: "Athletic ability does play a role.
"As much as he doesn't have a physique [traditionally associated with a world class boxer], he's got athletic ability in the sense that he's got a phenomenal gas tank.
"Conventional heavyweight champions don't look like him, but at the same time, some of them don't box like him. The guys who are super built don't have that ring IQ [and] don't have that movement for a big man."
Fury announced his retirement from boxing in January but has already teased a potential return. There has not, however, been any official announcement from him of that. For Lerena, the journey continues, fuelled by the difficult start he had in his boxing career and his late mother's support. She died in March 2024.
Lerena said: "When I turned professional, I was working three jobs. No-one cares about a pity story... My mom was a single working-class lady. She worked and I went to school and did my thing, but when I finished school, I had to get into working because we didn't have money to go to university.
"I had to say to myself: 'What do I want to do? Do I want to study or do I want to do this professional sport thing?'
"In order to do the professional boxing, I had to work three jobs. I had to work as a boxing trainer on Sean Smith's floor. I had to help George and Peter's brother, Sean. He has a security firm and I worked for him as a bouncer to earn some extra cash.
"I had a lot of hunger in me to try and do well. That's why we are [here] now: I've still got that hunger. It's never enough. It's not that I'm greedy. I just feel like I just want to maximise, so when I die one day, I can say I've tried my best to do as much as I can.
"Nobody can say: 'He was a lazy b****rd.' Nobody can say that."
However, even when he became a world champion, Lerena did not pay too much mind to celebrating.
"When it's all said and done, the belts are going to be on the shelf gathering dust. I can't celebrate that. I celebrate what means a lot to me in the sense of my family," he said.
"When it's all said and done, belts gather dust on the wall, the friends become few, everyone fades away but your family and your loved ones are the only ones that are there. That's what I celebrate."