The first career hometown headliner for Philadelphia’s Jesse Hart nearly proved disastrous, surviving rocky moments and a 10th round knockdown to barely get past veteran spoiler Dashon Johnson in their March 2016 battle.

It wasn’t even close to the worst part of his year.

That moment would come nine months later, when the second-generation boxer would watch his childhood idol and longtime mentor Bernard Hopkins suffer a knockout loss to Joe Smith Jr., ending his Hall of Fame career in the worst possible way. Even having since lost twice—both in title fights to Gilberto Ramirez—little else has occupied Hart’s thoughts besides the best laid plan to restoring honor in his boxing-rich city, with that plan coming to fruition in a head-on collision with Smith Jr. (24-3, 20KOs) this weekend.

“I’m not looking at what’s next. I’m not looking at a world championship challenge. For my city, it’s been rough since 2016 when the Joe Smith-Bernard Hopkins fight happened,” Hart (26-2, 21KOs) proclaimed during a recent media conference to discuss the bout, which airs live on ESPN this Satutrday from Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. “I’m not looking at nothing else.

“This is not business. It’s not business. It’s not some bragging rights, neither. This is something my family put on me. It’s more a family thing. When you doing something for family, this is personal. This is for my family, it’s not for myself. Bernard Hopkins is my big brother. January 11 is so close.”

For Smith Jr., the aforementioned win over Hopkins remains the shining moment in his career, capping a brilliant 2016 campaign. The working-class hero from the Mastic/Shirley region of Long Island, New York burst onto the scene earlier that year with an NBC-televised 1st round knockout of Andrzej Fonfara. From there came the opportunity to face Hopkins in what would become the final fight of his Hall of Fame career.

It’s been a rough road since then, with Smith Jr. having lost two of his last three starts including a 12-round loss to unbeaten light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol in his lone career title fight last March. Also wedged in between is a 10-round loss to Sullivan Barrera in July 2017, where Smith Jr. scored an early knockdown but spent the rest of the night fighting through a broken jaw.

Hart is 5-2 since the night he saw his idol fall, with a rematch loss to Ramirez marking his final fight at super middleweight. His first fight at 175 came in a clear-cut 10-round win over Barrera last June, positioning him for a potential light heavyweight title shot in 2020, perhaps even in the form of a third fight with Ramirez.

The only light heavyweight fight that’s mattered for the past three years as far as he’s concerned, however, is the one he has directly in front of him.

“I think I’ve been more focused than I’ve ever been,” insists Hart. “This is personal. It doesn’t matter about the politics. It doesn’t matter about the ratings. This is probably business for him, it’s probably just another fight. For me, it’s not. I don’t look at what’s next. When I asked Todd duBoef and Carl Moretti for this fight, I looked at it from this is something that I had to do for myself.

“[This fight is] definitely with a target on Joe’s back. Timing is everything. When I seen [Smith-Hopkins], I was very hurt. He was the poster boy [for Philadelphia boxers]… he inspired me. He inspired this little kid to be great. Not to be average, not to be good, not to be successful but to be great. We are all inspired by somebody. So that inspiration was hurt. We can never go where we are heading if we don’t understand where we were at.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox