The 23-year-old Irish lightweight is one of a growing number of fighters who are realizing that a strong presence outside the ring is almost as important as what they do inside it.

On March 14, Cairns (13-0, 8 KOs) will fight Arnie Dawson (8-1, 4 KOs) on the undercard of the WBA junior lightweight title fight between Jazza Dickens and Anthony Cacace at Dublin's 3Arena.

A skilled amateur and a big puncher, Cairns wants to be known for his boxing achievements, but his social media following has given him a leg up on other prospects.

“I think it's really important, especially for young fighters now,” Cairns told The Ring. “Obviously, you do your training, you're with your coaches, you're doing your runs. It’s hard work, but it's important to build your brand and put the hard work in there too.

“At the start, I didn't have much money. I literally just had what I needed to get through camp and to basically chase my dream. As soon as I started taking the social media serious and selling myself online, brands started coming to me and offering me money and things and I realized, ‘This is a real thing, and if I really put in the work, it can take off’.”

Modern boxing promotion is a slick, well oiled machine, but trying to make boxers everything to everybody is extremely difficult and, in many cases, removes exactly what it is that makes them unique.

Boxing is home to some of the most interesting, complicated, funny and intense people in any walk of life, but they are regularly put into cookie cutter situations.

Not every fighter feels comfortable spilling out their heart on camera or playing Tik Tok games with their future opponent sitting in the next room.

Picture Mike Tyson being asked to blind rank his favorite heavyweights as his undisputed title fight with Michal Spinks drew closer. Imagine Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera sitting down to play some new twist on the F--k, Marry, Kill game before their trilogy bout.

Cairns is a good talker and more than capable of getting his personality across during set interviews and press conferences, but the big punching 135-pounder has quickly realized that filling that gap in between fights is absolutely crucial to getting people invested in his story.

“Obviously the promoters are going to promote your fights. They’re going to promote the build-ups and all that, but you can't just expect them to do all the promoting,” Cairns said.

“You have to be willing to promote yourself, and I feel like what I've built now is that I'm able to promote myself. I've got one of the best promoters in the world in Frank Warren, I've got the boxing skills, and I’ve got the knockout power. I feel like I'm going to be a serious one to watch and be one of the best boxers to ever come out of Ireland.”

Fans crave authenticity and realism. They want to be given a glimpse into a life they like to believe they could live but, in reality, have no idea about.

It is no surprise that a very high proportion of boxing's most explosive and surprising talking points are created on social media when fighters are left in control of their own reputations or from candid, unfiltered footage.

Cairns himself likes to see what goes on behind the curtain. Just as he is showing fans what life is like for an up and coming hopeful, he scours the internet looking for tips about how the sport’s best operators go about their business.

“I think even if you look on YouTube at – let’s say Terence Crawford versus Canelo – and you watch the behind the scenes of fight night,” he said. “You’re in the dressing room with them and they're doing maybe a little prayer. When they’re warming up, what music do they listen to? Is he chilling? Is he serious? It's very interesting, because you're seeing how a championship world level fighter acts before a fight.

“What’s he eating coming up to a weigh-in? I think that behind the scenes stuff, people need to start showing more of because that's what people are really interested in.”