Alex Arthur knows better than most that boxing can take as much out of a fighter as it gives back. He knows what it is to push the body too far, to make weight at a cost and to discover that the consequences can follow you long after the fight is over.

Now, with his sons Alex Jnr and Machlan embarking on their own professional careers, the former WBO super-featherweight champion is determined that they learn from his experiences rather than repeat his mistakes.

Arthur has plenty of memories of his own career, including the brutal five-round defeat to Michael Gomez in one of the finest fights in modern British boxing. But some of his most valuable lessons might yet come from watching his sons make their way in the sport.

Both are now promoted by Frank Warren, as Alex Snr was, both have ambitions of their own, and both have a father who knows precisely how difficult the road ahead can be.

Alex Jnr is 5-0 (1 KO), a super-middleweight who has not yet come in at 168lbs, instead weighing around the 170lbs mark. But his dad boxed many a fight in a depleted state, and now he won’t let his son make the same mistakes.

“My dad was very unwell in that [Gomez] fight and you hear a lot of fighters say how, why they lost or excuses and reasons and stuff like that,” Arthur Jnr says.

“But that’s another way that I can take a bit of that experience from my dad. That fight against Michael Gomez probably would never have played out that way if he had just listened to his body and didn’t take the fight because he was unwell and really weight drained. So hopefully I’m never in a position where I’m in a life-or-death fight like that because of fighting through an illness or fighting through a bad weight cut or something.

“If the signs are there and my dad sees it and says it, then it won’t happen. But I believe I’ve got the skills and the ability to avoid being in situations like that for the time being.”

Arthur boxes on the Queensberry bill topped by Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchinson this weekend in Manchester.

Arthur Jnr has a healthy respect for his countryman, Hutchinson, and praised his ability.

“Willy Hutchinson was born in Livingston,” Arthur Jnr said, knowing that Buatsi is the pre-fight favourite.

“I don’t understand how anyone could write Willy off, period. The guy’s unbelievably talented and he’s phenomenal at boxing. There’s no two ways about it. It’s sheer, natural, God-given ability. Willy did [only] six rounds of sparring for his fight against Ezra Taylor.

“His whole training camp is pure, natural ability. And listen, I know how seriously Willy’s taken this camp with Buatsi and how hard he’s trained. And I honestly can’t see any other way apart from a Willy points victory.”

Hutchinson and Buatsi couldn’t be more different from each other, and Arthur Jnr has identified the differences between his five opponents to date as building blocks designed to give him a solid grounding to commence his professional journey.

“I’ve learnt that everyone’s very different,” he said of his start in the pros.

“All my opposition has been very different, which I think has been a very calculated and tactical approach from my dad. He’s made sure that I’ve seen something different in every fight, which has allowed me to focus and train for something different every fight. I feel like I’m much more of a well-rounded fighter now than I was before my professional debut.”

Arthur Jnr has also gone the distance in four- and six-rounders, banking important ring time as the tall southpaw continues to progress.

“I’m learning. I boxed at a very high level as an amateur in a very short space of time, which was a pro and a con for me because I was getting beat by them all, but I was with them, you know what I mean? So I won my first Scottish title the year before Covid, and then I missed out on a whole year of boxing. And I came back and then I got onto the Scotland team.

“After 15 fights, I was boxing people with hundreds of fights in Lithuania, France, Macedonia, the Netherlands, and I was getting beat, but I was going three rounds with them all and I was giving them all good fights. So it’s been a good start for me in my pro career to just keep that ball rolling, face different styles and fight different opposition and stuff like that. And I’ve taken to it really well.”

And while he makes his way down to 168lbs, he knows he will not rush anything when it comes to the scales.

“We’re definitely going to do 168,” he said. “We’ve just not had to do it yet. I think my dad’s probably got a bit of PTSD when it comes to discussing weight and making weight and stuff.

“Fortunately for me, he would never let me do that if he thought it was going to be dangerous. But I can make 168 comfortably.”

And there’s no way his father would encourage him to pull any of the weight-making stunts his dad used to do, including spending hours in hot baths.

“No, it’s the polar opposite,” Arthur Jnr insists. “If I wake up in the morning and I’ve got a sore head, he’s like, ‘Listen, you tell me if something’s wrong, you tell me right away’ because he’s obviously made mistakes and pushed through and fought through illnesses and injuries and everything like that.

“And it obviously didn’t end up good for him. So we’re in a good position with each other where I’m able to be totally honest with him and he’s very good with me. We’ve agreed that we’re going to do 168. We’ve hired a nutritionist who works with me. We’ve done tests and stuff and we can make 168 safely. I think this fight is only at 172 and my last couple have been as well. So until I have to go and take somebody’s belt away from them, I will not be in a rush to make 168.”

Arthur Jnr has been joined in the professional ranks by his brother, Machlan, and big things are expected of his sibling.

“To be honest with you, Machlan could have probably turned pro when he was 11,” Arthur Jnr smiled.

“I suppose I am the big brother and I’m the one that leads by example.”

Does he want them to be billed as a double act in Scotland, or will they follow their own paths?

“I think that’s a good question. I think it will probably be a bit of both,” he said.

“I would say once we both build big enough profiles, Queensberry will put on a show in Edinburgh and it will be based around us both. I think it’s probably not that far away.

“There are small venues here, such as Portobello Town Hall, that’s like York Hall, Bethnal Green. And then you’ve obviously got Meadowbank, which my dad fought in, which can hold 2,000 or 2,500. And I think it would just make so much sense for it to be promoted that way, the Arthur boys. But we’re both very different and we’re both individual personalities. I think that we’ll both go our own paths, but along the way we’ll always be together.”

And, of course, Alex Snr will be watching over them protectively. For it is a road the sons chose, not one Snr sent them down.

“We weren’t brought up in the sense that anything was forceful,” Arthur Jnr said. “We were never made to do anything we didn’t want to do. I think once we made it clear to my dad that we were boxers and that we wanted to fight and he noticed that in us, he would push us and test us because it’s not an easy road, you know? So he couldn’t be soft and gentle with us.

“It was just the way that it had to work. And it’s obviously paid massive dividends now because look at where we both are.”