Mick Parkin initially picked up boxing and mixed martial arts as a hobby with pals when he was a teenager, with no aims of fighting professionally. But after years of hard work and dedication to something he's self-admittedly 'half-good' at, he's now set to kick-off a career with the world's leading MMA organisations in the UFC at their London card later this month.
Hailing from the quiet village of Castletown in Sunderland, 27-year-old Parkin has amassed a perfect 6-0 record in the sport - something he will well want to protect when he makes the trip to the capital's O2 Arena come July 22 to face off against LA scrapper, Jamal Pogues.
Ahead of a dream debt on home soil later this month, Mick sat down with ChronicleLive to discuss exactly how he made it to the big leagues, just four years after tasting victory for the first time in the ever-growing world of MMA.
Read more: Undefeated Sunderland MMA fighter Mick Parkin lands a heavyweight UFC contract
When asked if he ever thought he would be fighting at the top level, Mick said: "When I first started, it was just like a hobby - I trained with my mates. I think I trained for like, three or four year, and got my first fight when I was 19 in kickboxing.
"It was a hobby for a while and then I started training MMA and thought I was half-good at it. A few other people have always said 'the UFC will come' - I never aimed for that. I just thought, with the other heavyweights I'll be faster tracked because there's not that many of them to go on a bigger show.
"I was trying to get a bigger show for ages. I turned pro and it was all local shows. Cage Warriors was the first step into the UFC, but they never put heavyweights on. I spoke to their matchmaker and he said it wasn't because I wasn't good, it's just because there's not many of us."
He went on: "I had that dilemma for a while and then the Contender Series came through, which was my foot in the door."
Mick spoke about the first 'really hard test' of his career against Eduardo Neves in UFC President Dana White's Contender Series - which sees professional fighters travel from all around the world to bag a coveted UFC contract. After a shaky start in the first round of the scrap in Las Vegas last year, Mick would go on to beat his then undefeated Brazilian competitor with a rear-naked choke.
That win saw Dana hand Mick a hard-earned contract, setting him up for the debut of his dreams on home soil later this month.
Speaking about the prospect of fighting in front of a home crowd, Mick added: "It's perfect really, a fight at home nice and local - because obviously now it could be anywhere in the world realistically. I was talking to Davey Grant and he hadn't fought in the UK since 2014 or something."
"He always wants to be on in London but they never put him on so he's buzzing. But that could be me now, I could be fighting away for six years or something - so it's good for the first one," he added, citing how his mam, sister, girlfriend and friends will be there to hopefully cheer him onto victory.
Emotions would understandably be high with Mick going into his first fight, but the undefeated heavyweight is cool, calm and collected as he faces his biggest test to date in a 10-3 Jamal. He went on: "I haven't been too bad yet. I get ups and downs - one day I might wake up and think 'oh my God, I'm fighting in the UFC it's going to be massive' and then I might think back to an old fight and think 'that'll be me when they lock the cage'.
"It's getting a bit closer now so I'll start visualising it more, I'll sit and just think about how I'm gonna go down, be in the arena for a while and just get used to it."
Mick also fights on the same night as heavyweight training partner and exciting number five ranked prospect Tom Aspinall, who is set to scrap Polish powerhouse Marcin Tybura in the headline fight of the night.
Mick trains out of Seaham's Team Fish Tank under coach Andrew Fisher as his home gym, training six out of seven days a week - but also travels to Wigan to train with Aspinall and a couple of other big names in the MMA industry - with an iron sharpens iron mindset.
Speaking on training with Tom, he added: "It's a place called Fighting Fitness where he does most of his training, and they go through a place called Evo Fitness as well. Then once a week they get Wigan Warriors' facility - it's an unbelievable gym and they've actually got a full 26-foot cage in.
"It's weird, we were doing bits of training and two of the players who play for the rugby team came in and we had a little wrestle with them and they were canny strong you know!"
Mick Parkin faces Jamal Pogues at UFC London from the O2 Arena, July 22. The event kicks off at 5.00pm and will be available to watch on BT Sport.
