Dalton Smith has made many sacrifices since he became a boxer.
They include evenings with friends, holidays abroad and renouncing all other young men's indulgences in his hometown of Sheffield consider to be rites of passage in their transition from youth to adulthood.
But undoubtedly the greatest concession of all has been deeply personal. So deeply in fact that before the pivotal fight on Saturday against Mathieu Germain, the 27 -year -old reveals that he implies his own sense of self and link with his father and coach, Grant.
“Boxing is a sport that completely takes control of your identity. I have been doing it since I was six years old and I am labeled as a fighter,” said Smith.
“Each fighter will not be able to tell you who he is really during his career.
“I'm talking about the person, not the fighter.
“You can't really know who you are as a person, what you are doing, until you abandon everything and decide to do something else.
“Right now, everything I know about me is what I'm as a fighter. And to be honest, it's the only thing I need to know at this stage of my life.”
Smith, who has already said that the British, Commonwealth and European crowns, are confronted by Canada's visitor to the Medical Arena de Sheffield this weekend.
The place is located just a few steps from the gymnasium where, under the vigilant eye of Grant, Smith has chosen to give up another aspect of his life in order to continue the grandeur.
“I will not have my father as my father until the day of my retirement,” he admits. “We cannot have the kind of relationship we would like to have until I stop fighting.
“We cannot consider ourselves as a father and a son. We have to see ourselves as a boxer and coach because I am a fighter, I am a warrior and I have to prepare to go to war. We cannot have the attachments that we would like to have until I stop.
“It is not easy. It is far from being easy in fact, but I would not have otherwise because being a fighter gave me the kind of opportunities that I could never have had in another career.”
