Bruce Carrington remembers distinctly the first time he saw the dark side of Brownsville.
It shaped his development, and his ambition to avoid the pitfalls so many around him fell into.
The 26-year-old rising prospect (9-0, 5 KOs), who is set to fight on the Robeisy Ramirez-Rafael Espinoza card Saturday night (10 p.m. Eastern, ESPN) at the Charles F. Dodge City Center in Florida, grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood famed for its boxing champions.
But it’s also infamous for violence, something Carrington grew accustomed to at a young age.
“Growing up in Brownsville, it was rough,” Carrington told The Post. “I will say that for the most part, my parents did a good job of keeping me out of trouble. Gang activity, all that type of stuff, because out there it’s big. But there’s certain things that you can’t control that you’ve just gotta accept. I remember the first time I saw someone get killed in front of my eyes, I was probably five, six years old. The first experience like that, it was really traumatic and I used to have nightmares about it and everything.
“But then, I just started seeing stuff like that over and over, you kind of get desensitized to it after a while, where it’s like ‘it’s just another Tuesday.’ It was a lot, coming up from Brownsville.”
Nicknamed “Shu Shu” and one of boxing’s most-lauded ascending talents, Carrington will take on Jason Sanchez (16-4, 9 KOs) in the first 10-round bout of his career, marking a significant step up in opposition.
Carrington’s trunks will feature the words “Forever Ike” as they always do, an ode to his late brother Michael Hayden.
Hayden was shot and killed in 2014 in what Carrington believes was a gang initiation.
Hayden was going to buy a new video game at the time.
“It’s engraved in me at this point, that whole experience,” Carrington said. “I will say that it changed me a lot, in terms of my mentality. If I didn’t want to do this boxing thing, [Hayden] wanted me to be the best in boxing. If I was ever to lose self motivation, I would have that motivation of just pushing because he wanted me to push. My brother was my best friend. I wear his name on my towel, or my shorts, or my gloves, he’s with me everywhere I go, he’s on my mind. His mannerisms are stuff that I carry.
“It affected me a lot. The loss, it kind of made me take life more seriously. Around the time he passed, I would say I was on a downhill in my boxing career, in terms of mentally. I didn’t have as much confidence as I have right now, the belief in myself, the dedication, it wasn’t there. Losing him made me realize how fragile life is, how things can just be taken away from you like that, you just gotta make the most of it. I’m definitely just gonna continue to go 100 percent, and put 100 percent effort in anything I do. That’s something he always wanted me to do.”
Carrington credits his parents for keeping him on the right path, and boxing for keeping him occupied.
He knows that if it weren’t for both, he could have found himself in a far different place.
“Boxing was definitely a safe haven, 100 percent, in my life,” Carrington said. “I wouldn’t say that I would’ve probably been in a gang if I wasn’t boxing, but I probably would’ve been interested in some other things. …
“The mentality, it built independence at a young age. I started boxing when I was seven years old, at that young age I realized that you can’t blame anybody for your mishaps. You can’t make excuses for something that didn’t go your way. It’s all on you. If something doesn’t go your way, you gotta find another way. I learned all of that through boxing. It built a lot of character. I feel like that helped me mature in a lot of ways at a young age.”
A plethora of champions hailed from Brownsville, notably Mike Tyson, Zab Judah and Shannon Briggs.
Carrington understands the legacy he’s continuing, and is eager to be the next to carry the torch.
But more than anything, he just wants to change the reputation of his hometown.
“They’re really just craving someone to put Brownsville in a good light, because there’s a lot of great things that come out of Brownsville,” Carrington said. “A lot of good people and smart people and driven, motivated people. It’s just that the media doesn’t show those things, so I’m just trying to be one of those people that can break that threshold.”