Greg Hackett has known Shu Shu Carrington longer than most of boxing has known his name. In this Mill City Boxing conversation, the trainer says he was in Carrington’s presence when the kid was about ten years old, missing teeth, already asking for the moment he is living now. His verdict, all these years later, is that nothing about the fighter surprises him: Carrington has always been a smart, sharp fighter who has been preparing for championship life since boyhood, and now he is simply learning how a champion moves. The host notes Carrington has already been called out — “Chop Chop” is on him, by the host’s account — and Hackett’s answer is patience, not panic.
That patience, Hackett explains, is by design, and it comes from the father. Carrington’s dad knows how vicious this game is because, in Hackett’s telling, the game scarred him: he took fights he had no business taking, got his head handed to him more than once, and still used those nights to feed his family. He will not let boxing eat his son alive the same way. So the son is moved deliberately, kept prime, prepped and ready, so that when he steps onto the showroom floor he is more than ready. Then Hackett drops the line the whole segment bends around, and he drops it twice: Shu Shu is a 135-pounder. He has the height for it, he does not have to be at 126, and he is forcing himself down there to collect his advantages before he moves up for real.
Which is why Hackett wants the Inoue talk cooled off. The host lays out the triangle — Inoue saying he is not waiting around for Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, Bam’s coach Robert Garcia saying no contract ever arrived, Carrington waiting on an Inoue move-up with a possible jump to 130 and an O’Shaquie Foster fight behind it — and it is worth stating plainly that the Foster fight in this video is the host’s hypothetical path, not a Hackett prediction. Hackett’s own rulings are narrower and blunter. Carrington should not focus on Inoue, because Inoue would catch him depleted at 126 while Inoue feels strong. And Inoue should leave Bam alone, because Bam jumping up toward 126 to chase him would be, in Hackett’s word, crazy — even with all of Bam’s firepower. Inoue, he warns, is not a game: put him down and he gets up and fires back.
Foster’s name keeps orbiting these smaller divisions this week, and Carrington may well meet him one day at 130 — but on his father’s timetable, at his real weight, not drained into somebody else’s dream fight. Our take: Hackett is describing the oldest winning strategy in the sport — grow into your body, take the fights your body is built for, and let the monsters come to you when the weight is yours. If Carrington is truly a 135-pounder wearing a 126-pound costume, the division should enjoy the costume while it lasts.
Video credit: Mill City Boxing.
