One of those rare exceptions will arise for Serhii Bohachuk on Sunday.

When he steps into the ring to face Shane Mosley Jr. in a 10-round middleweight bout in the main event of Zuffa Boxing 06 on Paramount+ (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT), it’ll mark the first time Bohachuk fights with his mother, Valentina Bohachuk, in attendance.

“My mother pushed me to work hard,” Serhii told The Ring. “My mother taught me everything. If you work hard, you make money. You can buy food. You can buy property. You can buy everything. My mother told me you need to work. If you work, you have everything. If you don’t work, you have nothing. I work hard because of my mother.”

For Valentina, she couldn’t think of a better Mother’s Day present.

“It means so much to me,” she said. “This will actually be the first time I see Serhii fight live, so of course I’m very nervous, but I truly believe everything will go well. Being there for this fight on Mother’s Day feels like the best gift I could ever ask for.”

Serhii (27-3, 24 KOs) and Valentina had been apart since 2022. Serhii came back from Los Angeles to Ukraine to get his visa renewed, but with the U.S. embassy closed due to the war between Ukraine and Russia, he was stuck in his hometown of Vinnytsia with his family.

After four months, Serhii, 31, got special permission from the Minister of Sports in Ukraine to leave the country. He then went to Poland, and after waiting a month, he was able to come back to the U.S.

While the process meant he could continue pursuing his dream, it also meant being away from his mother, who decided to stay in Ukraine as Serhii’s older brother, Vadim Litvin, fought in the Ukraine army.

After four years apart, they reunited in Los Angeles on April 28. Along with seeing his mother again, she saw Serhii’s daughter for the first time.

That moment was one Serhii said he couldn’t put into words.

“It was very emotional,” Serhii said.

With their reunion, Valentina has seen all of the payoff from the work ethic she instilled in him. Now, for the first time, he’ll have his chance to display the skills that brought him to this point with her in the audience when he faces Mosley (22-5, 12 KOs).

“I want to show her who I am now because she doesn’t understand," Serhii said. “She came, and she’s very excited. I have everything because of my hard work, and I want to show my mother that I’m a champion.”