Ben Whittakerโs love of America stems from two childhood rituals.
There were early morning calls to watch Floyd Mayweather dazzle at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
And then there were the days of watching the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris when he was introduced to Brooklyn and New York.
The British light heavyweight will try to live out his American dream when he faces Richard Rivera in his US debut on Saturday.
Darlaston native Whittaker, 29, is on the undercard of Xander Zayasโ WBA and WBO super middleweight title defense against Jaron Ennis at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Itโs the next step on a path that he hopes will one day take him to where multi-division world champion Mayweather called home for most of his career, and that is Las Vegas โ the fight capital of the world.
โI woke up and watched Mayweatherโs big fights when I was a kid. I think the first was Mayweather versus Oscar de la Hoya (in 2007) and of course Ricky Hatton,โ Whittaker told BBC Sport.
โI thought, โMan, this looks crazy. I want to be a part of something like that.โ Hopefully my first fight in America will be the start of that.
โI call it baby steps.โ You start in New York, end in Vegas.โ
But New York and particularly Brooklyn also hold a certain significance for the West Midlands boxer. This is because he binged episodes of a television sitcom, which was a semi-autobiographical show based on comedian Chris Rock.
โI would say that if New York means anything to me, it means โEverybody Hates Chris,โโ Whittaker said. โI just remember watching it, which was set in New York and Brooklyn. Then you also get into the music culture, thereโs a lot of music in the city that I listen to.
โFashion is very popular there too. Oddly enough, Iโve actually been involved with New York most of my life. Iโve been there five, six times. They really like me there, so it will be good.โ