As a resident of England, Isaac Dogboe understands membership in a royal family brings to mind images of tea, rules of etiquette and a refined existence.
Dogboe's royal ties to the king of Ghana's Anlo state are far less delicate, which has served the new super-bantamweight boxing champion well.
"My people are warriors of the land. My great-grandfather was in World War II. But there are no more wars to be fought," Dogboe said. "So now I channel that ancestry _ that fighting spirit _ into something, and boxing seems to be doing it."
The 23-year-old Dogboe (19-0, 13 knockouts) makes his first defense as the World Boxing Organization super-bantamweight champion on Saturday night in Glendale, Ariz., when he meets Japan's Hidenori Otake (31-2-3, 14 KOs) in the co-main event of an ESPN-televised card.
Wearing an orange-ish, hard-stone necklace called a dzonu that his royal family displays to represent a symbol of protection as well as Africa's rich culture, Dogboe explained that his father and trainer, Paul Dogboe, serves as one of four chiefs responsible for protecting his grandfather's cousin, paramount king Torgubi Sri III, who is in his 80s.
"My father is an heir to the throne," Dogboe said. "I'm just my father's son ..."
That's a substantial position, given that Paul Dogboe brought his son from Ghana to England when he was 8 and fostered the now 5-foot-2{ boxer into a world champion.
Dogboe got off the canvas from a first-round knockdown and stopped Jessie Magdaleno by 11th-round technical knockout in April during their WBO title fight in Philadelphia.
"I had put him in a soccer school in Ghana first, then integrated him to England into another soccer academy, but I felt he was too strong on the pitch ... running around like a headless chicken while they wanted tall players," Paul Dogboe said of his son.
"I have background in hand-to-hand combat in the British army ... I learned martial arts and became an expert in using the body's anatomy to fight. So I started teaching him techniques and head movement ... with that height, I knew he had to be skillful and have power."
Rising from the Magdaleno knockdown revealed that and more.
"I know that when there is no light, that's where God shines his light," Isaac Dogboe said. "So when people doubt me and write me off, that's when I rise above, beyond the imagination. I knew where I was going and what I was capable of."
Veteran boxing promoter Bob Arum is impressed, comparing Dogboe to retired countryman and former two-division world champion Azumah Nelson at Thursday's news conference.
Though Gila River Casino Arena in Arizona is a humble locale in the fight world for Dogboe to perform, Arum said he'll work to strike an extended contract with the fighter should he produce another successful showing Saturday.
Possible 122-pound unification fights against fellow champions Rey Vargas, Daniel Roman and TJ Doheny are in play with a win over Otake.
"Azumah Nelson proved that if a guy can fight and he's got a personality, it doesn't matter where he's from," said Arum, whose taken by Dogboe's "tremendous personality and the fact he's a great fighter who dealt with adversity ... so far what I've seen is terrific."
Dogboe furthered his reputation with confidence and wit, explaining he respects Otake, 37, as a strong, well-conditioned man, "but if by 37 you're not a world champion and you think you're coming to beat me and take a title that God has assigned to me, there's no way that is happening."
When Otake told the media that in fighting to become Japan's oldest world champion and negate a title defeat to Scott Quigg in 2014, Dogboe replied, "I'm going to fight for my soul. I have no need for his soul. I'm going to knock him out."
