When Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington enters the ring against Sulaiman Segawa this Friday, September 27, it will mark the third time in a row – and the sixth occasion in a 13-fight pro career – that he will have plied his wares at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. For the native New Yorker, it’s an achievement that stems from a lifetime of hard work, but it is also a tremendous honor.
“Listen, first of all, I just got to give glory to God, because without him, I wouldn’t even be able to perform the way I perform and work the way that I work,” the featherweight contender told BoxingScene. “But, man, yeah, I work really hard to be able to get the performances that I get. I study my opponents. I train three times a day and sacrifice a lot to be able to do the things that I do. So, I’m just really happy that the Theater is becoming a home for Shu Shu Carrington, and I just want to just be able to continue to perform for my fans. That means the most for my career.”
Of course, Carrington (12-0, 8 KOs) is not just a New Yorker but a Brooklynite. And he is not just a Brooklynite but a citizen of the neighborhood of Brownsville, one square mile and change in area, notorious for its poverty and crime rate and (not coincidentally) as the breeding ground for some of boxing’s greatest champions.
The immensely affable and likeable Carrington says he is keen to take advantage of the wisdom and experience that some of his predecessors have offered about the singular pressures and expectations of being a boxer from Brownsville.
“I’ve talked with guys like Zab Judah, Shannon Briggs, Daniel Jacobs, doing little things with Mike Tyson here and there,” he says, name-checking some of Brooklyn’s best. “I’ve talked to a lot of the Brownsville champions about just how much it means for me to be a Brownsvillian and just striving to be a champion. I really want to be recognized as one of the best ever to come out of the neighborhood, and I also want to set a great example for people that come from where I come from, because Brownsville is not really known for a lot of good things. You know, almost every other week something is happening out there in Brownsville that helps it get a bad rep.”
Just a few days ago, for example, what began with police confronting a man they suspected of jumping the turnstile at a subway station resulted in gunfire on board a train and injuries to the suspect, two innocent bystanders, and a police officer. Access to guns is a constant problem: between January and June of this year, while overall crime declined in the neighborhood – as across New York City – the number of shooting victims climbed 100 per cent compared to the same period in 2023.
Carrington, however, is keen to defend his birthplace and insists it is far from the war zone that it is often assumed to be.
“There’s a lot of great things that come out of Brownsville, man, and it should get just as much shine as the negative,” he says. “There’s a lot of great memories that I have. Just waking up or walking outside and somebody is walking out with a speaker, bumping some music, making everybody feel good, and just putting everybody in a happy mood. And people just out on their porch or by the benches, vibing and having a good time.”
Suddenly, a particular, boxing-specific, memory comes to mind.
“There will be times when people will have a little beef,” he begins. “And somebody will just go in their house, grab a pair of gloves, make a little circle, and have them fight inside the circle. And then sometimes the winner would stay in, and the next person would come in. Little stuff like that is the cool memories that I have in Brownsville.”
One of his other happy memories of his birthplace, he says, is the number of people who got behind him and encouraged his pursuit of dreams that would take him away.
“If they see you are striving for something great, they’re gonna push you toward that, they’re gonna get behind you,” he explains. “I’ve never been in a situation where people were trying to push drugs or drinks or any type of negativity upon me, because they know that I was a boxer. They knew that I was striving for something, and they respected it from the beginning. I remember that, and I think that that’s one of the main reasons why I have so much love and respect for Brownsville. Even when I fought in the Golden Gloves, they would come out deep for me, hundreds of people supporting me even as an amateur. That’s why I’ve got nothing but love for Brownsville.”
Indeed, it was growing up in Brownsville, and having such storied examples to follow, that turned Carrington into a boxer in the first place.
“I love boxing. I’ve always watched boxing since I was a little kid,” he says. “Mike Tyson’s from Brownsville, so he was always just like this larger than life type of figure. So when he would fight, it was always an event. Everybody would be like, ‘Hush, go in the house watch Mike Tyson fighting.’ It was always something to watch, and that made me interested in boxing. Then on top of that there was Zab Judah. I always loved watching him. And I would want to learn why this happened or that happened, why certain things work, why certain things don’t work. What could this fighter have done to win? What could this fighter have done to get the knockout? I asked myself those questions, and that just pushed me into a whole rabbit hole. I wouldn’t say I’m a perfectionist necessarily, but I work on trying to just be as perfect as I can be.”
Talking of being as perfect as he can be, Carrington takes immense pride in his work ethic, from 3am runs to almost obsessively watching videos of his opponents.
“It helps me a lot, because I make sure I dot my I’s and cross my T’s,” he says. “I study my opponent so much that I dream about the fight over and over and over. I even end up having meditations about the fight: how do they react, what are their habits? What have they improved on? What are their strong suits? I think about every single one of those things, and I work on them, over and over and over and over to the point that when it’s time to fight, I know every single thing that they’re going to be able to do and I have an answer for A through Z and then some.”
That intensive preparation, combined with his natural skills and ability, has seen Carrington move rapidly up the ranks of a division that is presently jam-packed with talent at its high reaches, with the likes of Nick Ball, Raymond Ford, Rafael Espinoza, Angelo Leo and now Stephen Fulton among those battling to be top dog. There’s also the prospect of a certain Japanese boxer moving up yet another weight division to join the party. But while Carrington hopes that victory over Segawa would set him up for a title shot in 2025, he insists he is unconcerned about which of the division’s contenders and titlists might be up next.
“To be honest, there’s not really anyone that I’m really focused on,” he says. “I’m just ready to fight for the championship, whoever it is. I’m ranked high by all the sanctioning bodies. So I’m ready for each and every one of them, totally. I’m mentally ready. I’m physically ready. And I don’t think that these fighters know what we have in store for them. We’re not stepping around with them. Things are different on TV. People could say they could do this, do that, but no, when you step in a ring with me, it’s a whole different ball game, and I’m just ready for whoever.”
The perfect scenario, of course, is that that title shot, or an early defense, sees him back on home ground – perhaps this time in the big room at Madison Square Garden or Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
“Definitely!” he affirms. “That’s really on a bucket list for me. I really pray that everything comes to fruition. I’m really working hard for it to be able to make it happen, and when it does, I’m gonna have the best performance of my life.”
Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.
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