'The championship takes over your life. You can't miss a ride – or a trick'

Being the youngest of ten children must drum survival instincts into you from the day you can walk.

And while Silvestre de Sousa is just a fraction over 8st, someone twice his size would be making a big mistake to pick a fight with him. He is built like a boxer, a real pocket battleship, which is why he is the strongest genuine lightweight of my time, just ahead of that feisty little Scot Willie Carson, who could generate astounding force from his 7st 10lb frame.

De Sousa is a powerhouse who can motivate that half-ton beneath him with incredible strength, marbled through with the ferocious determination that the outsider must have in order to succeed in an alien climate and culture.