Bruce Carrington: Welcome To ‘Shu York City’

Looking back at the knockout, Carrington credits the change in his mental approach as the reason things are starting to all come together in front of our eyes. “I felt like my mental switched up the fight before then,” said Carrington. “For the majority of my career, I was just picking and choosing what I wanted to do in terms of what I wanted to show the fans without giving too much of myself. Once the end of 2023 happened, I said, ‘Man, let me just turn it up’ because I feel like everybody wants to keep looking over me. I told myself that this year, I want to put on emphatic performances. You are going to know who Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington is. This is the Shu Shu Era.”

One noticeable thing is that Carrington’s vision in the ring has risen slightly. You could see it in the Torres fight, so it was interesting to hear his mental approach as he went through the rounds and put that great vision into play. “I just had supreme confidence. I knew how hard I trained. Round three came up. I figured him out and saw he didn’t like that pressure. So, I applied pressure, and when round four came, my coach asked me what I see. I told him ‘He don’t like it when I put it on him’ so he told me to go after him. That’s when we decided to get him out of there.”

Carrington is full of confidence going into his fight on Puerto Rican Day Parade Weekend in NYC. It’s a big fight weekend, and although he’s not the focal point, fighting on the same card last year helped grow his Puerto Rican fan base. He’s been named an “Honorary Puerto Rican” in his neighborhood, which has even followed him all the way to the island. After fighting during last year’s PR Parade weekend, he took a trip to San Juan, PR, and after posting on social media that he was there, the people of PR came out to show him love. 

Although he has a late replacement, which can be just as dangerous, Carrington knows that after beating Jason Sanchez in December, the opponents will get harder. With that, the naysayers will continue to grow as well. He’s ready for it and welcomes the naysayers because, as he says, “I love proving people wrong. I’ve been doing it my whole life. I know what I’m capable of. Everyone around me knows what’s up. I have a different type of hunger. I look at myself as an old-school boxer. I don’t play no games. I don’t win just to win. I go in there to dominate. That’s what boxing is missing. There are a lot of soft dudes, fake tough dudes, and twitter-finger dudes. I’m about my business.”

As he makes his way to fight night as the co-main for the ESPN telecast, Carrington wants to win over even more fans. All eyes will be on Carrington, and he will be ready to deliver. “You guys are going to expect another crowd-pleasing performance. It’s going to be a dominating performance.”

Carrington’s main focus is Saturday night, but in the back of his mind, he knows that a showdown against the undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya “The Monster” Inoue could potentially happen soon. He would have to keep having impressive performances, but it’s not a fight that is hard to make, especially since they are both with Top Rank. If presented with the option of facing Inoue or a title shot, which would he take?

“Honestly, I would go fight The Monster. Fighting The Monster would be bigger because he has the name, money, and fan base. It’s kind of a no-brainer. I would like to fight Inoue. I’d like to do that first.”

Will we all witness a future world champion on ESPN this Saturday? Only time will tell, but for now, Carrington is at least saying and doing all of the right things to get him the opportunity for a title in the near future.