As Bulgaria muddled through the economic difficulties of its transition after the fall of communism, Todorov drifted aimlessly. He had a few jobs — as a driver, in a grocery store, at a sausage factory — but nothing stuck. His wife, Albena, worked in a supermarket, too, but could not find anything consistent. Both are now unemployed.

About 15 years ago, Todorov moved here, to the apartment across from the coffee hut with the banana on the wall. There are drug dealers and underworld bosses on the street, Todorov said, and some of them approached him about working for them. He could be a captain, they told him, a leader. The money would be good.

He turned them down.

“There is a lot of cheating here, a lot of negative things,” he said. “I don’t like this. But there is also no boxing gym, no training. I don’t talk to people a lot here. I don’t get involved in anything. I don’t need a lot of friends. I just try to relax.”

That is harder than it sounds. Even 19 years later, it does not take much for Todorov’s brow to furrow and his glare to sharpen, because the regret hangs heavy. Albena wishes her husband had called her after the promoters made their offer. “It could have changed our lives and the lives of our children,” she said, her eyes wide. Todorov cannot hide his disappointment.

If he had lost to Mayweather, he said, he would have surely continued fighting in an attempt to reach an Olympic final. He would not have wondered about the chance to stay in America, or about a subsequent betrayal against Kamsing. “Instead, it all happened and I wanted to hope that things here could get better,” he said. “It was stupid. I came back and I found hell.”

Early Tuesday afternoon, Todorov walked through a scraggly garden near the middle of Pazardzhik. He moved quickly, his head down and his shoulders slumped and his feet shuffling along the cracks in the concrete. As he crossed a street, two young men waiting at the red light leaned out their car windows.

“Sarafa!” they shouted, using a nickname for Todorov. There were smiles on their faces, and one of the men pantomimed a quick flurry of punches in the air. Todorov turned and gave a weak wave as the light turned green and the men drove off.

“They remember,” Todorov said, but there was no joy in his voice. Then the man who beat Floyd Mayweather walked on.