There's a quiet strength that exudes from the voice of veteran trainer Naazim Richardson -- better known to just about everyone in the boxing world as "Brother Naazim."
He's stoic and wise, having seen it all throughout multiple decades in the sport training the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley and Steve Cunningham. But when you ask him about his latest pupil on the rise, unbeaten Karl "Dynamite" Dargan, a different emotion begins to bubble to the surface: joy.
After all, they are family.
Dargan (17-0, 9 KOs), a cousin of Richardson, headlines this week's "Friday Night Fights" (ESPN2, 9 p.m. ET) against Tony Luis in a 10-round lightweight bout from Foxwoods Casino and Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
A native of Philadelphia, Dargan, 29, was the youngest of those close to him who grew up in the gym observing and learning from Richardson. There was his older brother Mike, along with Richardson's three sons -- the Allen boys -- Rock, Tiger and Bear. All were decorated amateurs and most turned pro, to varying degrees of success.
But Richardson knew from the very beginning that Dargan was different. His attention to detail was unique. His intellect was special.
"He knew everything. He was a know-it-all," Richardson said.
Every day, wherever Richardson went, Dargan was right behind him like a shadow.
"We would babysit him in the gym while we were training his older brother and he would remember everything," Richardson said. "He would say, 'You're not jumping rope right. You're not doing this right. He's not doing that right.'
"He was always like my little assistant. So I told him, 'How long have you been training fighters?' Finally I told him he better come out on the floor and everything he had watched, he could do."
Getting the green light from everyone in the family to enter the diminutive 7-year-old Dargan into the sport wasn't so easy for Richardson, who admitted, "They wanted to kill me. All of them." Dargan, himself, was equally reluctant at making the plunge.
But the slick boxer with the quick hands took quickly the sport. After a brief -- and admittedly ill-advised -- run trying to emulate Mike Tyson's fighting style as an amateur, Dargan began to develop his own style as a boxer. He studied tapes of Sugar Ray Robinson.
Soon enough, Richardson began to notice something unique about the way Dargan moved.
"I always told him that he fights how other people try to fight," Richardson said. "He fights with a natural pizazz and a natural flash where other people try to force and emulate and try to do a lot of things because they want to look charismatic. His is natural."
Dargan mixes that fluidity and athleticism in the ring with a strong boxing IQ, cultivated through years of soaking up wisdom not just from Richardson, but from being around the training camps of the ageless wonder Hopkins. Dargan has taken much of "The Alien's" teachings to heart, including the need for a fighter to protect himself at all times, whether in or out of the ring.
"I can't go against the stuff Bernard says," Dargan said. "As a pro, he said that once you start making money, this is a business and it needs to become a lifestyle. It isn't, 'OK, you've got a fight and have to get in shape for the fight.' You have to always be prepared."
Like Hopkins, Dargan extends that wisdom to the way he fights. He doesn't identify with the normal stereotype of a "Philadelphia fighter" or feel any pressure considering the platform of Friday's fight to go for the knockout or absorb any unnecessary punishment.
Dargan says it's no disrespect to the fans, but his main focus is to listen to his corner and get the job done.
"I'm from Philly and being from Philly you have to know how to fight," Dargan said. "But I wouldn't consider myself a 'Philly fighter.' I adjust to my habitat. If the strategy is to move around and pick my shots, that's what it is.
"A lot of people from Philly like to fight for Philly and fight to impress the fans. I have to do what I have to do and what is best for me."
Richardson firmly believes that 2015 will be the last year that Dargan might appear in the ring without a world title belt around his waist. The next step in that journey will come against Luis (18-2, 7 KOs), a native of Canada, who is no stranger to making exciting fights.
"I like this kid, I like that he doesn't give it away," Richardson said of Luis. "You've got to work in everything you do to get something from him.
"Tony has faced some good competition and there's no quit in the kid. We just have to change his mind about feeling like he is able to have success."
For Dargan, who eventually sees himself moving up to the 140- and 147-pound divisions, his journey is all about chasing that dream of a world title that began years back inside the gym.
"At the end of the day, I love the game. I want the hardware," Dargan said. "Of course, the money comes with it. And I do want the money. But from the day I first started fighting, I wasn't thinking about that. I was focused on winning."