"I never wanted to fight," admitted Dario DeAbreu, as he sat in the kitchen of his Cardiff home and thumbed through a stack of photographs detailing his journey from boy to man.
"But, unfortunately, in my life, I’ve had to, just to survive."
It may sound like the hook line to a trailer for an all-action Hollywood blockbuster, but even the likes of Steven Spielberg would have difficulty dreaming up a plot with as many twists and turns as Dario's incredible life story, which he explores in his new autobiography.
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It is a life that takes him from the sugar plantations of South America, to sleeping rough as a child on the mean streets of Cardiff, to becoming a professional boxer, overcoming cancer, and founding a multi-million pound business .
It has also been a journey marked with incidents of violence, both inside and outside of the ring, from the relentless aggression of school bullies to run-ins with the law as a debt collector.
But, despite all that, Dario, of Rhiwbina, says he is not a brawler, or a brute. He has always been, by his own admission, a scared little boy.
Born in Guyana in 1960, he grew up alongside his five brothers and sisters in the capital of Georgetown. His father, a strict but intelligent man, was an overseer on the surrounding sugar cane plantation, and was a huge influence on his many children.
But while he says he had a "very, very happy" childhood, things weren't always the easiest for young Dario, who was exposed to violence at an early age - seeing people get shot and cut with machetes - and endured a torrid time at school.
"I grew up as a scared kid," he said. "School was tough. Everyone there was black apart from me, and I was picked on for having white skin - in fact, my nickname was 'White Cheese'.
"There was a lot of intimidation and being a shy, scared child, I was a real target for bullies. There would always be someone waiting outside the school gates to beat me up. But I just saw that as the norm, that's just the way things were".
After his parents split up - and as fighting broke out during a period of political upheaval in Georgetown - 14-year-old Dario left Guyana in 1974 with his father and his brothers and sister to travel to Wales, where it was suggested they stay briefly en route to a new life in Australia.
However, money issues led to Dario being separated from his beloved father, who emigrated to Canada just days after arriving in Wales, leaving him and his siblings in Cardiff.
"There was a lot of excitement when the decision was made to leave," recalled Dario. "We were heading to Australia, and it sounded great, but that never happened in the end.
"My father did not stay here long. We arrived in Cardiff on December 17 and I think he was gone by Christmas. We woke up and he'd just disappeared, it was only years later that we understood why.
"At that point, though, we were having fun - it only really hit home a while later, when I was on my own and needed that parental guidance. He commanded a lot of respect, my dad, and I loved him."
Living with eight other children in his aunt's three-bedroom house in Gabalfa, Dario soon found himself being moved out, and spent many nights in homeless shelters or sleeping rough around Splott, still aged just 14.
"I saw a lot of things that no young boy should see," he said. "I was in the Salvation Army shelter, and people were doing drugs around me, injecting themselves.
"I would sometimes sleep there, but I'd also stay with friends, or out on the streets, in Splott Park, wherever I could find really.
Life on the streets was no friend to a teenage Dario, who turned to petty crime while he also got kicked out of two schools for fighting back against the bullies that he couldn't seem to escape.
"I got in trouble just trying to fit in," he said. "I was involved in gangs, stealing cars, and I was arrested a few times. Having grown up in the bush, I lacked a lot of education and life experience.
"While in Guyana I was targeted by bullies for being white, when I moved to Wales, I was picked on for talking in a West Indian accent, this broken patois. So, I got into fights, I was thrown in bushes and even chucked into Roath Park Lake. It was when I started fighting back that I got kicked out of school."
Things started looking up for Dario when he found regular work in the Cardiff meat markets, which helped him to keep out of trouble, while he also took up boxing, a sport he admits he was "nurtured into loving" by his father.
"My dad was a massive boxing fan," he said. "He absolutely loved George Foreman. I got into boxing because of his love of the sport, to be honest, I'm not a fighter really - although I am inside.
"I'm a quiet, shy, scared guy, I don't want to fight. But like I said, sometimes you have to do things you don't necessarily want to do, and ultimately fighting has made me who I am today.
"If I wasn't a fighter, who would I be? I had no education, I couldn't read and write properly, I was out of school and heading for trouble. It's what I had to do."
Winning more than 200 fights across a 10-year amateur career, Dario represented Wales on a number of occasions, and earned the title of 'Cardiff's own Raging Bull', while still working for a time at the meat market.
"I was punching the meat before Rocky even thought about it," he laughed.
His time in the ring served him well as he turned 18 and took up another job as a debt collector, while also working nights on the doors at some of the capital's hottest nightclubs and events.
A muscular figure with a mean-looking face, Dario would work as a doorman for 35 years, providing security for the rich and famous, including Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Shirley Bassey and Status Quo.
But his stint as a debt collector wouldn't keep him out of trouble, as he found himself in court on occasion, often charged with menacing behaviour - something he believes was unfairly assigned to him.
"I got myself in trouble a few times, for being a bad boy," he said. "With my strength, my boxing experience, I felt invincible. When you look like a monster, it's not surprising to be charged with menacing behaviour - that's how it must have seemed to whoever I was confronting.
"But of course, underneath it all, I'm not a menace, or a monster. I looked tough, because I had that tough-guy face, but I was still just this little boy, scared as anything.
"I've worn many masks in my life, and being on the doors was no different. I was Marlon Brando with that gangster-type face, because that's what worked. I used it well and I wore it well, but I've always been scared, no matter what job I've done."
If Dario's muscular frame wasn't imposing enough already, as his boxing career continued to progress, he also took up bodybuilding, with his impressive body winning him the title of Mr Cardiff in 1987.
"Boxing was my first love, because of my father," he said. "But I wanted to have a good physique and look good in the ring, so I got into bodybuilding too.
"I had a fantastic torso, with biceps bigger than Mike Tyson’s - his were 16 inches when he was fighting, mine were 21 inches."
But while bodybuilding made him feel good and look good, it was to lead to everything changing for Dario - or so he suspects.
Having turned professional in 1985, his pro boxing career was cut short after just a handful of fights, when he was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia in 1991 and forced to retire.
Dario believes that his illness was caused by taking anabolic steroids - something which he had long avoided but later became involved with as he looked to keep up his bodybuilding form.
"I’d been accused of taking anabolic steroids before, due to my physique, but that was just from keeping fit with my boxing. I thought, if you’re going to accuse me of taking them, I may as well do it. I didn't need them at all, this was after I won Mr Cardiff and everything.
"One of the possible side-effects of anabolic steroid abuse is cancers, and I think that may be what happened to me."
But while the leukaemia ravaged his body, Dario - who had for so long been scared of everything - suddenly felt no fear.
"I had burns from radiotherapy and horrific bruising on my face," he said. "I completely lost the physique I had and my body obviously went through a lot of changes.
"But it's the only thing that I’ve never been scared of. I never thought I would die, I always knew I’d survive. Maybe it was just because I was ignorant, but that ignorance kept me feeling positive
"There was a time where doctors thought I wasn’t going to make it through the night, but I never felt like that. Where I was in the hospital, you would hear the squeak of the wheels when they’re taking bodies out at night - but I never believed that would be me."
Dario was right - he battled bravely against his illness and, like he did to so many of his opponents in the ring - finally beat leukaemia in 1995, with his resilience and positivity making him a champion again. But he wasn't done yet.
While he hit the gym hard to rebuild his body, he also explored other business opportunities, and set up a security company - Specialist Security - in 2001.
Starting from scratch - and with no real experience in security solutions - he built the company up to 150 employees, and saw an overall turnover of £3 million.
After leaving the company in 2018, he set up another one - Dario Security - which has become a leading provider of "total security solutions" in South Wales. With daily operations overseen by his two sons, Warren and Cole, and another 40 or so employees on his books, Dario couldn't be happier.
"I didn't have any experience when I started out in security," he said. "I was just told I was a good doorman.
"But I used the connections I had, and gave people a lot of opportunities - it's so important to be nice, both in business and in life. To have my own company like this is just fantastic, and having my two sons running it has always been a dream of mine, because I’d have loved to work with my father."
Even by his lofty standards for the remarkable, Dario's personal and professional success is astonishing - not that it phases him too much. He is someone that has learnt to just keep on moving, whatever life throws at him.
It is rare then, that he stops and reflects on his journey - but that is exactly what he is doing now, as he works on an autobiography - entitled Little Boy Scared - which he plans to launch in May.
For him, though, it's not about showing how far he's come or selling any rags-to-riches story. Rather, he wants his experiences to help people, and show them the power of self-belief and positivity.
"It's about showing people that, whatever happens in your life, you can still be good," he said. "You can do anything if you're strong willed.
"I got kicked out of school, I didn't go to university or anything, I just picked things up as I went along. I’ve not mastered anything really, but I do things that come naturally to me. All I've done is just kept on being the way I am, and that’s how I’ve got to where I am today.
"You just have to believe in yourself, and then you can do anything."
From the scared little boy that came to Wales with nothing, to the charming, snappily dressed man that he is today, it's impossible not to be inspired by Dario's story.
While his walls may be adorned with pictures showing off his tensed muscles and fearsome fighting poses, don't get it wrong - this is a man who has got by armed with self-belief, determination and a reluctance to ever slow down.
When asked about his plans for the future, he replies: "Well, I'd like to be an actor..."
It doesn't look he's going to stop moving anytime soon.
A launch event for Little Boy Scared is planned for May 14, 11am-3pm at the Coal Exchange in Mount Stuart Square, Butetown.
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