Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor: Crumlin v Grand Rapids
It is a common trope in boxing that fighters are a product of their environment. And on Saturday night two fighters from two different worlds meet in a money-spinning clash befitting of the gaudy extravagance of the Las Vegas strip.
But Conor McGregor's clash with Floyd Mayweather is a fight forged on the streets of two cities, more than 3,500 miles apart and a world away from the lights of the Nevada desert.
At first glance, they are two men with little in common. A cocky son of a drug-ridden American ghetto and a brash kid from a working class suburb of one of Ireland's proudest cities. When they meet in the ring, they will be joined only by a mutual desire to be the best. But where did their journey to the T-Mobile Arena and one of boxing's richest ever fights begin?
Floyd 'Money' Mayweather takes on Conor McGregor at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night in a huge cross-over clash
The Irish superstar consistently talks about the influence of his roots and fear of forgetting where he came from
Floyd Mayweather Jnr
Hometown:Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Surrounded by Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland near the Canadian border, Grand Rapids is far from the traditional jewel of America's North East.
But thanks to the exploits of a few of its most famous sons, the city known for its furniture manufacturing will forever hold a place in the folklore of the country's politics and sport.
It is where Gerald Ford, the 38th US President, was raised. And from where some of the nation's finest boxers have risen in recent years.
The Mayweather family alone has produced four prize fighters in recent decades, while three-weight world champion James Toney and former middleweight king Peter Quillin also rose from the streets of the Michigan metropolis.
From a young age, Mayweather's toughness was bred into him in an unforgiving environment at home in Grand Rapids
But it was a world away from the museums and skyscrapers of the city's downtown that its most gifted fighting son honed his craft. Floyd Mayweather grew up among poverty, drugs and crime in a Grand Rapids ghetto.
'If you didn't hear a gun during the week you'd wonder what was going on', the 40-year-old is quoted as saying in Tris Dixon's Money.
'When I was about eight on nine... we were seven deep in one bedroom and sometimes we didn't have electricity,' Jnr said. 'No heat, no water no nothing. Nothing. I basically raised myself.
'When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up.'
The unbeaten Mayweather, 40, grew up amid drugs and poverty in Grand Rapids, Michigan and made it to the top
After 49 professional fights, Mayweather has never been beaten and attributes his work ethic to his upbringing
And his father's approach to parenting mirrored the tough environment surrounding the Mayweather family.
'I don't remember him every taking me anywhere or doing anything that a father would do with a son, going to the park or to the movies or to get ice cream,' Jnr later said.
'I got whippings all the time... my father would beat me for anything I did, even if I hadn't done anything. I used to pray for the day I could become an adult and get away from it. I got tired of getting beat.'
His mother was a drug taker, addicted to crack cocaine. His father was a talented welterweight, who supplemented his own career with hustling and whose own career was curtailed after he was shot in the leg in a domestic dispute. Snr's flirtation with the criminal underworld eventually landed him in prison.
His son followed him behind bars many years later but not before he had upped sticks and moved to west to the Nevada desert. Vegas is where Floyd Jnr lives and the city's Chinatown district is where he trains.
But however far he moves away from the streets of Michican, he knows there is one thing he cannot change: 'Grand Rapids is my hometown'.
Grand Rapids is the second largest City in Michigan and has transformed since Mayweather was a child
Mayweather was drilled in boxing from a young age by his father Floyd Snr who is still a key part of his team
Conor McGregor
Hometown:Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland.
It's one of the cruellest ironies of combat sports that the finest fighters often rise from the toughest of beginnings. To that end, Conor McGregor is different.
The Irish UFC star hardly lived a life of luxury as a young boy. 'I had many fights growing up as most young boys do from where I'm from,' he later said.
But in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin, McGregor did not grow up amid the kind of broken home that plagued the childhood of his opponent.
Alongside his parents Terry and Mags and sisters Erin and Aoife, McGregor lived in a proud working class community, one that had already produced former Ireland international footballers Paul McGrath and Andy Reid.
And one whose traditions almost took the young fighter down a different path altogether.
The UFC star's home town is in the suburbs of Dublin, Ireland with a population of just over 5,000 people
'The Irish mentality is when you're finished school, if you're not going to college you have to get a job straight away,' he later said. 'There is no chasing your dreams, doing what you want to do. You have to get a trade or do a job.
'So I got the first trade that came my way which was plumbing. I spent 18 months doing that and I'm looking around on the site and I'm looking at the fully qualified people and their bad backs, bad posture and I realised I didn't want to go down that route. I thought I could do something with my life.'
It could have been a very different and sinister path for McGregor in an area which still struggles with crime.
'I still am in Crumlin every day,' he says. 'There's still s---. Now there's cartels,' McGregor recently told ESPN.
And in a previous interview with the Irish Independent he added: 'It's mind-blowing. But I never forget the struggles. I never forget where I came from. I never ever forget the hard times.
The Irishman is proud of his upbringing and has his own gym at home in which he had a special mural painted
'I pinch myself because I am surrounded by luxury. But make no mistake – it's luxury built on sacrifice.
'When things were really bad I didn't have a pot to p**s in, really, nothing. I'm not a stupid guy and it was hard standing in the a dole queue.
'I never truly left Crumlin. You have your friends at that age and where we moved to I didn't relate to anyone,' he said. 'My boxing gym was in Crumlin, my football club was in Crumlin. I love Crumlin dearly.
'I love Dublin 12 dearly. Anytime I am back in Dublin I head to Crumlin, to my friends.'
Many years had passed since McGregor first walked into Crumlin boxing club. The gym shared a facility and with the area's football and Gaelic football clubs. There was one dressing room and one shower room for 300 people.
But McGregor had decided to defy the wishes of his parents when he pursued a career in combat, and now he'll write his own chapter in Crumlin's and Ireland's rich sporting history.
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