YOU work rigid for 12 weeks, even harder for 12 rounds, and then suddenly it’s over. The work is over, the fight is over, and all you can do at the end is hope that you got the result you deserve; a result that is worthy of all the rigid work.

For Australian Liam Paro, currently resting in Las Vegas, the sudden halt in action and work has been as jarring as it has been welcome. It all came to a predictable halt the moment he raised his hand after 12 rounds with Subriel Matias last month. Since then, he has done what he can – first in the Bahamas and now in Las Vegas – to resist the temptation to get back to work and return to the factory settings.

“It’s still sinking in, but it’s becoming more and more real with each passing day,” he said. Boxing News from a hotel room in Vegas. “We spent a week in the Bahamas, me and my partner, and it was just to wind down and relax. I was on a seafood diet and it was good. It was a tough 12-week boot camp and now I’m just relaxing.

“It’s thrilling, you know? It’s been 10 days [since the fight] and now I’m ready for the next one.”

In “next,” Liam Paro will enter the ring the same but different. That means he’ll bring the same work ethic and attitude he always does, only this time, and for the first time, he’ll be bolstered by the IBF super lightweight title, a prize for defeating Matias, the favorite, in Puerto Rico on June 15.

“I always dreamed of being a world champion,” he said. “Even when I was 13, I was sitting on the bench and telling my mom I was going to be a world champion. I think it was after my first year of boxing and I only had a few amateur fights. Everything I do, I always aim as high as I can. I try to dream as high as I can. Aim for the stars and shoot for the moon. I’ve always approached it that way.”

At 13, he gave his word to his mother. Shortly after, he gave it to someone else. That person, a close childhood friend of Paro’s, tragically took his own life in 2015, aged just 18. His name was Regan Grieve, and it was to him that Paro dedicated his first world title.

“We were best friends growing up, and he was always around,” said Paro, who has Regan’s initials, date of birth and date of death, and the words “Conquer the World” tattooed on his ribs. “The worst day of my life was carrying my best friend in the casket.”

He continued, “That’s what I mean when I say I’ve been through harder things mentally than those fights. I always try to find something positive in everything and employ that as motivation. There are times when you have to dig deep and I tend to think about that. He was my best friend; like my brother. It was a huge loss. It’s not ideal, you really don’t want that to happen in life, but you just have to employ that as motivation and try to find something positive in every outcome, no matter how rigid it is. That’s what I try to do every day.”

With that burden on his shoulders for so long, both in his heart and mind, Paro’s performance in Puerto Rico becomes all the more impressive. After all, in addition to having the engine and power to keep the home team at bay, Paro also had to keep his emotions in check and make sure he never strayed too far from the game plan he had developed in camp.

“You can’t be emotional and you don’t want to waste any more energy than you have to,” he said. “But I’m always pretty good with pressure. I always do well under pressure. It was more after my hand was raised that all the emotions started flowing. You heard it in the interview after the fight with all the swearing; typical Australian. But it was just raw emotion. All we have in this life is our word, and being my man is what really hits home. That’s the most critical thing for me in all of this.”

Though unbeaten at 25-0, 15 KOs, Paro speaks with the humility and common sense of someone who has been beaten a few times and grown from it. He is confident, yes, but also realistic and free of the delusions of grandeur that often drive other unbeaten fighters entering their first run as world champions.

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Whether that’s because Paro, while unbeaten, is no stranger to setbacks is anyone’s guess. But the 28-year-old from Queensland has certainly been affected by his upbringing and won’t be the type to take anything for granted.

“I come from a working class background and was raised that way,” he said. “Nothing good in life comes uncomplicated and I know that. You have to work for the things you want and that’s why I’m humble. I was raised knowing how critical respect is, and respect is very critical to me. Being part of a hard-working family has shaped me into the person I am today and I think that shows on fight night in the way I fight.”

His roots in rugby league also influence the way he trains and fights, albeit on a smaller scale. It was in fact the first sport that caught Paro’s attention as a juvenile boy and to which he was devoted until boxing came along and stole his heart.

“I did both until I got to the U-16s and then it just didn’t work out,” he recalled. “I was losing weight fighting and playing with the people I was playing with and against [in rugby] were getting bigger and bigger. I just had to make a choice and boxing was the obvious choice for me.

“It definitely gives you some kind of endurance. [rugby league]. It’s a tough game. It’s just. It’s rigid contact. It just gets you in that frame of mind early on. But the competitive nature of boxing got me, and I’m glad I chose boxing for the long haul. I had some natural talent for it. I was very green, but once I get my mind around something, I’m just fascinated by it, and that’s still the case with boxing. I’m always learning something recent.”

Even now, as a recent world champion, Liam Paro’s education is far from over. That’s why he wants to get back in the gym as soon as possible, despite the lure of Las Vegas and its dazzling lights. It’s also why he’s already watched and studied his last victory on tape – more than once.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’ve watched it a few times. I watched it properly for the first time two days later and it was good. I was content with the way I fought and a lot of people were excited. I still can’t wrap my head around it, the enormity of it all, but we showed the world what we knew.

“It’s always a little different” [watching it back]. It was a tough fight, for sure. I was really pumped up there. But I knew it was going to be tough. Matias was an incredible champion, and his record speaks for itself. He could also punch. It was the perfect way to win the title, I think. Looking back, I was content with the way I fought.

Not only will he bask in his own brilliance, Paro will revisit his victory over Matias to find out what he did right and what he could have done better if he had the chance to do it all over again. What’s more, like a screenwriter who sees his dialogue come to life through the actors on screen, Paro gets the thrill of seeing everything he and his team have worked on for 12 weeks come to fruition when it’s needed most.

“We knew what we were getting into,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a fast-paced fight and we knew how Matias fought. We stuck to the game plan, and the game plan we had worked perfectly. I executed it the way I needed to to get there.

“I knew he was coming in the middle rounds, but I grew in confidence as the rounds went on. He had power, yes, but not the kind of one-punch power that would get me going. I realized that the longer the fight went on. As a result, I was gaining momentum. I expected him to be forceful, of course, but watching his fights, I also realized that he wasn’t a one-punch guy; it was more of an accumulation.

“He just tends to overwhelm guys and stick to you like a bad smell. He doesn’t give you space if you don’t move. I thought he’d hit a lot more, but the game plan we had was good. I didn’t set it. That was the plan in the beginning. You see all the other guys are in front of him, and then when you let him set his feet and hit, he does damage and it gets really ugly. We never let him do that.”

After this act of defiance, Paro must now do as he is told and stay out of the gym for the foreseeable future. This is his reward—and punishment—for performing so well on his biggest night and training so rigid beforehand. They say it’s a necessary part of his recovery, the comedown. But try telling that to someone who knows only one speed; someone whose hunger has never been greater.

“I definitely want to get back in the gym,” Paro said. “Everyone around me is telling me to relax a little bit, but it’s rigid for me to sit still. I just want to get another belt and beat another opponent. I’m happiest when I’m training in the gym, so I’m hoping for a quick change. Right now, I just want to fight other guys with belts. I think that’s the plan.” [Devin] Haney was the opponent we were after, but he just gave up his [WBC] belt, which means I’ll have to focus on the others. I’m excited to get out on the road and try to unify this division. That’s the pinnacle I want to keep chasing.”