Cairns was still a teenager when he first linked up with renowned English trainer Coldwell, who initially acted only as his manager.

But when the Cork teenager made the decision to go and live and train under Coldwell in Rotherham, it meant moving his life not only to England but also the gym itself.

“I lived in there for nearly two years,” Cairns tells The Ring. “We got a bed in there, a TV and stuff. It was actually alright.

“I used to wake up at about 8am, still have sleep in my eyes and I’d roll into the ring and start my shadow boxing. I didn’t have a long commute, and it meant my diesel costs were low.”

Now 24, the man dubbed The Irish Takeover has emerged as one of the most promising boxers from his home country. He recently cracked the top 15 with the WBA, his highest ranking to date, following an impressive stoppage victory over Arnie Dawson.

He has now earned enough money from boxing to buy his own house, which is not too far from Coldwell’s gym, where he lives with his partner, who followed him to England around three years after he made the move.

“I look back at those early days living in the gym as character building,” Cairns adds. “It was like asking myself the question ‘how bad do you really want it?’

“I just kept having to ask myself that question and that’s what kept me going. It built so much discipline that now everything I do feels easy compared to that. In September it will be five years since I moved in there, things have moved fast ever since.”

Living inside the gym also opened the youngster up to unexpected intruders. “I’ll always remember when I was about 18,” he says. “I’m just sat in my bed room scrolling through my phone and I hear a knock on the door.

“I thought it was strange because I didn’t think anyone else was in the gym. I open it up and there’s Derek Chisora, who used to train with Dave. He’s like ‘how you doing mate?’

“I remember that time he said to me ‘you’re going to be the one. You’re going to be world champion.’ He recognised the sacrifice I had made and that always stuck with me.”

So far, his decision to up sticks has paid dividends and the momentum has been growing steadily over the last two years, during which he has boxed and won seven times. But despite his decision to live and train in England, the two most significant opportunities of his career to date have laid in wait back across the water at Dublin’s 3Arena.

First that victory over Dawson in March, which gleaned the first belt of his career, and now his clash with Dubliner Senan Kelly in the same ring on August 1 as part of the undercard for the event topped by Pierce O’Leary against Mark Chamberlain.

“The Dawson fight was a great night for me, my supporters, family and team,” he adds. “Because there was a lot of work that went into that.

“It wasn’t just a training camp, it was the culmination of the four and a half years that built up to it, stretching right back to when I first moved over to live in the gym.

“So to get in there, to do nine rounds and then get the knockout at the end means it went perfectly. I ticked a lot of boxes and now it definitely feels like the next stage of my career has started.”

That means returning to 3Arena within five months of victory in order to face Kelly (12-1, 2 KOs) in his second successive 10 rounder.

“Back-to-back fights in Ireland is great because it means I can build that support,” he says. “I boxed in five different countries in the first seven fights of my career but now it’s more settled.

“My supporters now actually know where I’ll be. Before I’d tell them I’m fighting in Liverpool but then the next fight is in Uzbekistan. Who’s coming to Uzbekistan? It’s hard to build momentum like that.

“But that’s not the same fighting in Dublin. I’m pretty sure this one will be a great fight, an all-Irish dust-up and all the people that come to watch him will hopefully start supporting me after this fight.”

And what of that bed back in Coldwell's gym?

“We still train in the same gym now,” he says. "Nobody is in that bed these days but it's a reminder of where I've come from to get here.”