The tougher the challenge, the more excited Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington gets.
Carrington, a 27-year-old featherweight prospect from Brooklyn, New York, has been professional for three years. He’s 12-0 (8 KOs) and is scheduled to fight Sulaiman Segawa (17-4-1, 6 KOs) on September 27 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Carrington-Segawa is on the undercard of Sandy Ryan-Mikaela Mayer, for the WBO welterweight title.
The prospect of facing Segawa energizes Carrington – especially because of the quality of foe Segawa has been in with and defeated.
“He’s fought some good guys,” Carrington told Randy Gordon and Gerry Cooney, the hosts of At the Fights on SiriusXM. “He’s beat some guys that I know, like Elijah Pierce and Ruben Villa. He’s beat some solid people, man, I don’t ever overlook my opponents. I treat every single fight I have as if it’s a championship fight. I train as such. But this is something [that’s] best for me. This is a guy that’s very dangerous. He knocked off a top-level guy [Villa].
“I’m really excited. This is the stuff that makes me want to train hard. This is the stuff that makes me want to prove myself to the crowd, to all the fans, to all my naysayers that I am the guy I say I am — and then some.”
Segawa is a 33-year-old originally from Kampala, Uganda, who lives just outside of Washington, DC. He won a majority decision over Pierce in 2019; Pierce has since gone on a good run down at junior featherweight. Segawa outpointed Villa in July; Villa’s only other defeat had come via decision against Emanuel Navarrete.
This will be Carrington;s third fight of 2024. He knocked out Bernard Angelo Torres in four rounds in February, and Brayan De Gracia in eight rounds in June.
Gordon and Cooney brought up a couple other names at featherweight — titleholders Angelo Leo and Rafael Espinoza — as well as the undisputed 122lbs champion Naoya Inoue, someone Carrington has mentioned multiple times before.
“I first saw Espinoza fight Robeisy Ramirez in that fight [winning the WBO title via majority decision in December],” Carrington said. “That is someone I want to fight. He earned my respect.”
On Leo, who just knocked out Luis Alberto Lopez for the IBF title: “I eventually want to fight him sometime soon, obviously because he has the belt.”
Carrington went much more in-depth on Inoue.
“There’s a reason I say I want to fight him,” he said. “That is one of the best guys. Some people see him as the best in the sport. I want to test myself against those guys. I want to beat those guys. I’m not afraid. I’m not scared of any of them.”
Carrington agrees that Inoue has very few flaws, but, in his eyes, that doesn’t mean that Inoue doesn’t have vulnerabilities.
“There are certain flaws that he has defensively that I excel in my offense,” Carrington said. “I also notice he’s a guy that learns from his mistakes as well, too. So I always got to keep watching and learning, because some habits, he picked up on [them] and strengthened. He’s a very interesting fighter. He is known as one of the best for a reason. That’s a dream fight, but as of right now I’m focused on what I have in front of me, which is Sulaiman Segawa, and also the featherweight champions, especially being that Naoya Inoue is taking his time in his division, being as dominant as he is and has always been.”
Carrington himself isn’t in any rush to leave the 126lbs division.
“I have no trouble making weight,” he said. “I have a lot of business to take care of. I’m going to be a nightmare for these guys for a long time. I have 100 per cent confidence that I can possibly even become undisputed in the featherweight division. I just want to see how things go when the time comes. Definitely we’ll [become a] unified world champ.”
Carrington is just a few years and a dozen fights into his career. But he feels the time to take on those toughest challenges – the ones that really amp up his excitement – is near.
“I am ready right now,” he said. “But I see myself fighting for a world title very possibly in the first quarter of next year – 2025. I’m not waiting anymore. I’m 27 years old. I’m not necessarily on the younger end of my 20s.”
Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
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