It would be fair to wonder why Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington is so intent on winning a world title.

Carrington grew up in Brownsville, a notoriously dangerous neighborhood in New York City. He witnessed a murder from mere feet away at the age of six. His brother was murdered on a seemingly normal day, while a teenage Carrington watched "Karate Kid." He learned how to go about his day with gunshots popping in the background.

Now he is a professional boxer living in Las Vegas with a fiancee, a son, a 14-0 (8 KOs) record, possession of Mike Tyson’s personal phone number, and the adoration of Brownsville, which remains an inspiration. Carrington is already a success story and an inspiration to his hometown, with a broader narrative arc than several fighters who have won multiple belts.

So why the thirst for a world title? His ambition.

“I definitely, in some aspects, feel I’ve already won in life – when it comes to being able to move myself out of Brownsville and be in a safer environment,” Carrington told BoxingScene. “But I’m so ambitious. I never thought that leaving Brownsville was it for me. I always knew that I wanted to make such an impact on the sport of boxing, that when people mention the greats, they’re gonna mention Bruce 'Shu Shu' Carrington in their conversation.”

Carrington doesn’t stop there. He has been calling out champions for a title shot to no avail for a while, and has narrowed his focus recently. “I really wanna fight Nick Ball. I would love to fight Stephen Fulton as well too. Both of those fights are very interesting to me. They’re at the top of my list right now in terms of the featherweight champions. I just need my opportunity.”

He is currently preparing to fight Enrique Vivas on March 29 in Las Vegas, in the 10-round co-main event to the rematch between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan.

To prepare for Vivas, Carrington has been sparring for 10 four-minute rounds at a time – the extra minute per round often wears out sparring partners early – grinding out Stairmaster workouts, running to lose weight and doing calisthenics.

“Training camp has been great, man,” he said. This training camp is a positive one in isolation, but especially so compared to his last. “Certain things just weren’t clicking; weight wasn’t coming off the way that I wanted it to. I had fights 49 days apart, and that’s something I wasn’t really used to. Still came out victorious, but this time, this camp, has been great. I’m already on weight. I lowkey have to slow it down with cutting weight, to be honest [laughs].”

Carrington won his last fight by unanimous decision, dropping no rounds but his opponent twice. If that’s the performance that follows a rough camp, Vivas will bear the brunt of his full wrath.

“Shu Shu” is easygoing and humorous, which is frankly remarkable given the difficulty of his upbringing and the rigor of his trade. If not for colleagues reporting the same experience, I might have thought his good cheer was due to the fact that he’s ahead of schedule with making the featherweight limit, which he describes as the hardest part of boxing.

While other boxers toss around racial slurs in their efforts to promote a fight, Carrington is the type who will take the time to clarify that he is on a plant-based diet, not a Vegan, because he still wears leather coats and fur and “wouldn’t want to disrespect the vegan culture.”

That doesn’t mean he isn’t clear and ruthless in pursuit of the fights he wants. “I just want to be the best. I just want to fight the best. And I don’t feel like a lot of these guys have that same energy anymore. These guys are not like the old-time fighters; not like the Four Kings, Ray Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Duran. These guys are not like those guys. I see myself as one of those guys. I’m cut from different cloth, man. I wanna show and expose the game, and show how weak these dudes really are.”

“I’m cut from different cloth” is a common enough cliche, and easy to disregard in the age of self-promotion. But listen to Carrington talk about boxing and he convinces swiftly.

As a child, “Shu Shu” got caught up in scuffles at school, only to lay beatings on his would-be bullies. His father saw something in him and brought him to a boxing gym. There, a taller boy grew envious of Carrington’s superior skills and tried to push him around. Carrington suggested a sparring session and pummeled his tormentor to the point that he did not return to the gym.

It’s a good story, but the way Carrington describes his feelings in the moment is the best proof of his mettle as a boxer. “The rush that I felt – might sound a little crazy – from my fist hitting his face, and just being able to get hit and then weave in my shots without getting taught, I wasn’t even being taught how to move and evade shots yet. To be able to do all that on my own, and to beat him up so bad to the point that he never came back to the gym after that – I was like, Yeah, I love this.

“This is a thrill, a rush, that satisfies something in me that I can really let out. When you’re in a fight outside, you’re not supposed to be doing this, it’s something that’s holding you back sometimes even when you have all that rage. I can really let it out [in the ring]. This is a place for me to really pounce on someone. I might be a little crazy, man. Talking about this, I kinda get a little excited. It’s one of those situations when I’m realizing, yeah, I see what my dad was talking about.”

Carrington has had growing pains with boxing. Years ago, his level plateaued, and he talked with his father about what to do next. His father said that he was yet to really surrender himself to the sport – an intimidating prospect, and not just because boxing is a physically punishing sport. Truly giving himself over to the fight game would reveal whether or not Carrington had what it took.

“Shu Shu” began giving his all, though there was one scary moment in his first tournament after the pivotal chat.

“I remember I got to the point where I finally surrendered to the sport. My first tournament back, first day in the tournament, I’m getting in there and I’m boxing, I’m fighting, I’m fighting, dominating the fight,” Carrington recalled.

“And the guy catches me with one shot – boom! – knocks me on my ass. And I’m just like, This motherfucker dropped me! He really got me! And I get back up, and I’m just like, I can’t lose. Because if I lose, then all of this hard work is for nothing. That wasn’t a reality that I was willing to believe. That was something I was not willing to believe. I finished the last round strong, and got the victory with flying colors.

“But that one little moment, it was like, Dude. It was one of those, I feel like, divine interventions. It was kind of like, Hey, listen, you’re winning this fight right now, but you can very easily be humbled. So appreciate this moment right now and don’t slack off ever again. And ever since then, I’ve been on one. It was one of those enlightening moments, man, and I will never forget it for the rest of my life.”

The lesson, and the fight Carrington describes, is eerily similar to Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez’s takeaway from his fight with Juan Francisco Estrada. When they fought in May, Rodriguez pummeled Estrada in a one-sided first five rounds, but suddenly, shockingly, found himself on the canvas from a counter in the sixth. “I always wondered what it felt like, and now I know, so I don’t want it to happen again,” Rodriguez said to Chris Mannix after the fight.

To date, Carrington has not been knocked down in 14 professional fights. He is, for now, a high-risk, low-reward opponent for the champions, but believes that a champion’s duty is to fight the best. He also believes that he has earned his shot.

“They know that I’m a risk. They know that it is what it is in terms of me spoiling their plans,” Carrington said.

“But I don’t care. I really don’t care what your plans are. You’re kinda just in my way of what I need to be done, and if you guys are champions, the way you call yourselves, champions fight the best of the best. I truly believe that I’m better than all these guys. If you guys don’t believe that, shut me up.”