Four Santa Cruz sons were raised in a boxing ring by their father Jose, who remained by his youngest boy’s side even throughout serious illness. Leo Santa Cruz, after a tumultuous 2016, now has his inspirational father back in his corner.
Jose, a Mexican immigrant, was transfixed by the crash, bang, wallop that he would hear inside a dingy building in the California ghetto where he raised his young family.
Struggling to bring up four sons in Compton, a notorious area best known for the crime described by its hip-hop inhabitants, Jose knew the noises coming from inside the building represented hope of a better life.
Too old to box himself but a fighter in so many other ways, Jose led his four boys into the gym. "If it's not you, it's going to be you. If it's not you, it's going to be you," the youngest son Leo told the LA Times, remembering his father's dream to raise a pro boxer.
Fast forward 20 years, Leo is the only Santa Cruz son still throwing punches - 1,100 punches, to be precise, against Carl Frampton last summer. One judge had it level, the other two enabled Frampton to win the world featherweight title fight to set up this weekend's rematch.
Jose was in the corner, as he always had been, magnificently attired in his cowboy hat and unbuttoned shirts, looking every bit like a villain from a spaghetti western. Before stepping into the ring, he and his son kissed a gold chain gifted to them by the WBC president, claimed to have been blessed by The Pope.
The night that Leo was beaten for the first time otherwise represented a poignant success for the Santa Cruz family, simply because Jose was able to attend.
"In the first camp, I was worrying more about him, about his health, how he was doing, if he was going to be able to go to the fight with me," Leo said, describing the cancer that afflicted his father throughout 2016.
Fighters always say 'we' because they extract strength from the belief that their closest allies are alongside them in the loneliest of sports. How much did Jose's vulnerability hinder Leo's preparation?
"Me and my brother were doing something that we thought was going to be a good game-plan. But, you know, my dad is smart when it comes to that. Since my dad wasn't there, we didn't come with a big game-plan. We had trained for one thing with my brother, and then when my dad got there, he wanted us to train in a different way."
The Santa Cruz family are toughened to dealing with hardship. Even after boxing took the youngest three sons out of poverty (the eldest, Antonio, removed his gloves at the earliest opportunity), Roberto (11-3) had a career cut short by Lupus, a disease affecting the immune system. Worse still, Jose Armando (28-5) suffered brain swelling in 2010. Their father knew that boxing was a dangerous yet possibly rewarding escape for the family, and Leo's success has made that choice worthwhile.
"Now, thank God, the cancer is in remission, in complete remission," Leo said. "But he's doing a lot better and so my mind is clear.
"This time having him there in the gym with me, he's telling me specifically what punches I have to throw with Frampton, how to fight him. He pushes me, and gives me that extra motivation."
There is something immeasurable about the innate toughness of Mexican boxers, with Leo Santa Cruz and his 1,100 punches against Frampton the latest example. But the tale of the five Santa Cruz fighters - one father, one who couldn't do it, two who were forced away, and one who became a champion - should serve as a warning to Frampton. With Jose's cancer at its worst, Leo came agonisingly close to victory, and now the fearless father is back to plot against Frampton.
Watch Carl Frampton's rematch against Leo Santa Cruz in Las Vegas, live on Sky Sports 1, from 1am on Sunday January 29.