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To say that the Beltzhoover boxer has overcome obstacles to become the North American Boxing Council cruiserweight champion is selling his story short.

The celebration inside the ring at Heinz Field late Saturday night after Saunders scored a majority decision over James Walton of New Orleans spoke to the significance of Saunders' ability to turn a negative into a positive.

"My boxing success, a lot of it is drawn from the hatred I received all my life," Saunders, 30, said. "I tell people, 'All of that happened to me.' A lot of people don't live to tell their story. I get to tell my story. Every chance I get, I speak on it."

Saunders will tell you that he never knew his father, or, as he calls him, the man who made him. And that he lost his mother, Connie, to a drug overdose when he was 11.

That he came from the projects, from Northview Heights and St. Clair Village, before finally settling in with his grandmother, Helen Saunders, in Beltzhoover.

That he was stabbed in the back at age 15 and shot in the chest at 21. That he was arrested six times between 1994-97, and received a four-year sentence for shooting at a police officer.

Saunders will tell you that he served 2 1/2 years -- the final six months in solitary confinement -- at Graterford State Prison. And that he's not a better man for it.

"Prison does two things to you," Saunders said. "It makes you harder or it makes you softer. You never come out the same -- ever."

Even as Saunders was the object of a failed contract hit plot this year, he is trying to make a positive impact on the inner-city community. He regularly donates tickets for his fights to local youth football and baseball teams.

At his title fight, he sponsored a section for members of the Coalition for Fathering Families, with which he marched with and served as a spokesman for this past Father's Day. Saunders wants to be a good father to his 11-year-old son, Rayco Jr., a Golden Gloves champ like his dad.

"I don't view it as charity," Saunders said. "There's a lot of young males that are in my situation now. The male that made them -- I don't call them their father -- is not there. He's not taking them to boxing matches, to football and baseball games, like a father is supposed to do.

"If I can bring kids to a fight, I'll do that. It's a chance for them to see something different than what's contained in their neighborhood."

Saunders' neighborhood was well-represented at Heinz Field, both visibly and vocally. There was a chorus of shouts of Soov -- short for Beltzhoover -- during the fight and, especially, after he lifted the title belt at the end.

"You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you came from," Saunders said. "I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity."

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