However, whenever he felt like quitting his fear that the child would drown if he didn’t fight on forced him to dig deeper and deeper.

Waters was one of Australia’s toughest and most skilled fighters, and his three courageous assaults on the world title and collection of championship belts ensured his 2009 inclusion into Australian Boxing’s Hall of Fame.

His 1993 three-round bloodbath with WBC light-middleweight champion Terry Norris – boxing’s meanest hombre at the time – is known as "The Unexpected War" because he wasn’t the walkover Norris anticipated.

After a volley of Norris’s bombs knocked Waters to the canvas (the first time in his career) during the opening round, the American commentators who’d dismissed the challenger as no threat were left gobsmacked midway through the next round when Waters became the first opponent in four years to put Norris on his backside.

Adding to the legend of that night in San Diego was how – after a devastating shot in the third round left deep cuts around Waters’ eyes (they’d require 24 stitches) – the Aussie continued to march forward despite his ‘face falling apart’. “He knocked me down twice – but he couldn’t KO me,” said Waters. “It took a cut eye to stop me.”

Waters and his siblings – Dean, Guy (a fellow world title contender) and sister Tracey –endured a horrific upbringing. Their deranged, beanie-wearing father Ces was a petty thief from Manchester whose attempt to impress strangers included lying about his non-existent ties to old London’s underworld.

A painful truth was that he raised his children like beasts of burden; flogged often and treated cruelly. On Christmas Day in 1969 as other children in London’s Finsbury Park ate plum pudding and opened their gifts, the Waters boys were pushed into the snow wearing second-hand boxing gloves before Ces advised them to “try and keep warm”.

After the back door was slammed shut the trio traded blows to overcome the cold. When the Child Welfare Unit commenced its investigations into reports of neglect, Ces fled aboard the Fremantle-bound SS Australis with his children, their new step-mother, a banged-up campervan and seven Australian dollars.

After Ces stole cash from farmers and prospectors during the long journey to the east coast, his family settled on acreage in Kulnura alongside packs of stray dogs and lame racehorses.

While the boys trained relentlessly to fulfil their father’s dream that they’d become boxing champions, and Tracey lived a life of domestic slavery, the violence escalated. It was so despicable that when Dean was tried in 1997 for the murder of his step-mother’s lover, jury members were visibly shaken by each family members’ account of the degradations they’d suffered.

Ultimately, the jurors needed only 90 minutes to acquit Dean, adamant Ces’s evil hold over him was so intense he didn’t act of his own free will when he pulled the trigger.

The power of Troy Waters’ story is he possessed the moral courage to break free of Ces’s cycle of violence. After marrying Michelle, of whom he told a friend ‘‘I’ll marry that girl one day’’ upon seeing her for the first time, he became a loving husband and father who only ever treated his family with tenderness.

In the last years of his life he was in awe of Michelle’s devotion and ability to hold everything together as he fought leukaemia. As a father he enriched the life of his children. Among other things he helped to foster his daughter Shontae’s love for animals by volunteering alongside her at the nearby puppy pound.

Last summer, during a wild electrical storm, Waters terminated a phone call in a panic because he feared Nate – a talented soccer player - was surfing in the big swell. While his son was safe on shore, there was no doubt Waters, the protective father, would’ve defied his illness if needed to swim his son back to land, away from the danger of being struck by lightning.

He championed worthy causes. In 2003 ‘‘The Glamour’’ boxed an exhibition bout to raise funds for sick kids. I was his opponent, and despite it being a shuffle between a lion and Humphrey Bear, hundreds of people attended because of his name – and, yes, he put on quite the show.

Despite his health issues he played in last year’s Battle of the Smashers cricket match between the Aussies and Kiwis to assist homeless veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Ever the KO merchant, he decimated a Kiwi team which included the international cricketer Daryl Tuffey and footy stars such as Bronson Harrison and Tyran Smith by taking a hattrick that helped win the match.

It's been written elsewhere that Troy Waters had “many sadnesses” in his life. I was his friend for 30 years – I’m forever proud he christened me “Bombsaway” - and while it’s true he rued incidents from his life in the ring, and he couldn’t fathom the reason for his father’s hatefulness, he was too preoccupied with his life’s blessings – especially the love that filled his and Michelle’s home – for any great sadness.

He was also galvanised to deal with life’s setbacks through his unshakeable belief that God had His plan for him. Indeed, despite the chemotherapy and the illness that tormented him, those closest to Troy are certain that faith never wavered – even as he drew his final breath.

Mex-i-co, Troy Waters, Mex-i-co, Mex-i-co, Mex-i-co. You fought the good fight amici, you are loved.