While many might know Steven Cairns from his vast social media presence, there is far more to him than what you see on Instagram or TikTok.
That is part of the journey, of course. A fighter’s digital footprint is increasingly important when it comes to deals in and out of the ring, but Cairns’ story has been a slow build from the start.
He didn’t wake up with 130,000 followers on Instagram. His journey didn’t start at the 3Arena in Dublin, where he boxes on Saturday.
But it has involved a lot of sacrifice along the way.
He recently turned 24 and, asked whether he had a slice of cake to celebrate, Cairns laughed: “I had some potatoes and some salmon.”
Now is not the time for the young Irishman to lose focus.
He left home at 18 to go and train with Dave Coldwell in Rotherham, and he didn’t do it to make a living from boxing; he did it to go all the way to the top.
“I always had that belief that I wanted to be a world champion. I wanted to be a professional boxer. I wanted to be a world champion,” he said.
“That was what was in my mind, even since I was a kid. I was in school, and even the teachers used to tell me, ‘Oh, you need to concentrate on your grades. You need to make sure you’re concentrating.’
“And I was like, ‘I want to be a professional boxer.’ And they thought, ‘Okay, that’s good and all that, but you have to have a backup plan. You have to have this.’
“And I was sure I was going to be a professional boxer.”
Cairns had trained with his father, Lee, since he was seven and, after his first pro fight, Cairns Snr accepted he didn’t have the experience to take his son as far as they both hoped he would go in the pros.
Coldwell had worked with world champions like Jamie McDonnell and Tony Bellew, and he’d boxed himself under the Sheffield legend Brendan Ingle.
They reached out to Coldwell, initially, to come and spar in the gym with the likes of Hopey Price and Jordan Gill. Cairns did some rounds with tough Leon Woodstock, and Coldwell liked what he saw.
“I knew he was a world-class coach,” recalled Cairns. “And for me, it was a big thing coming over here sparring, because it’s like I had to try to prove myself. I had to see, am I ready to hang with these guys who are killing it over in the UK? And it was a big thing for me.
“And when he said yes to training me, I knew. I was happy with the decision.”
Part of Cairns’ workload is fighter study. Coldwell has him looking at many of the greats, and Cairns is trying to pick out bits from some of the finest fighters the sport has seen.
“I like watching Canelo, I like watching James Toney’s shoulder roll. Then you’ve got [Julio Cesar] Chavez’s inside game. I like watching Miguel Cotto, the way he puts his shots together. There are so many fighters that you can take bits and pieces from. I watch a lot of old-school boxing as well. I’m just learning. I just learn every day and I want to see what I can pick up, bring it into the gym and try it out, see how we get on.”
Cairns, from Cork, Ireland, is 14-0 (9 KOs) as a pro heading into his fight at Dublin’s 3Arena on Saturday against the 12-1 (2 KOs) Senan Kelly.
And while he is doubtless focused on the job facing him, his long-term goals extend beyond this weekend although he is making sure he enjoys the ride along the way.
“Yeah, 100 per cent,” he admitted. “And you see a lot. It’s not just athletes, it’s people in business, people in anything in life that they’re chasing something bigger. It’s like once they reach that goal, they actually think more about the times when they were coming up and thinking about stuff that they struggled with or problems that they think they had that actually aren’t big problems now. And they even appreciate the process more than the achievement, because the achievement will always be something else. When you win a world title, you want to be undisputed world champion. When you win undisputed, you want to be multi-weight undisputed. So the goal never stops, it’s always in front.”
