Simeon Powell’s ascent to main event stardom came so quickly that he was still working his day job.
Londoner Powell, 24, who was employed full-time as an apprentice engineer, faced Mohamed Amine in the headline bout when the Professional Fighters League (PFL) staged its debut European show in Newcastle in March.
It was just the eighth bout of Powell’s impressive and so-far unbeaten two-year professional career, but in the build-up he gave himself an ultimatum.
If he won the light-heavyweight contest, he would quit his job.
Powell submitted Amine in the second round.
“I quit that day. I was planning on quitting, but I had to win,” Powell told BBC Sport.
“I had to win so I was OK and have enough money to live until the next fight. So I was like, ‘You know what? I’m all in now’.
“When I think about it now it feels crazy, but I worked five days a week, trained twice a day, and I think my last shift was two weeks before the fight. I booked off two weeks for the fight.”
The win saw Powell advance to the PFL Europe semi-finals, the stage at which he will face Spain’s Abdellah Er-Ramy in Paris on Saturday.
Powell says his accomplished performance in his debut main event fight proves he belongs on the big stage.
“It was a good test to see how I dealt with the extra media obligations, the extra pressure, the extra ability to perform under the lights,” said Powell.
“It was good for me, it was amazing. It showed that I was capable.”
The finals take place at the 3Arena in Dublin on 8 December with winners from each weight class receiving $100,000 (£82,000) and a place on the PFL’s global circuit, which carries a $1m (£820,000) prize.
‘Joshua v Klitschko inspired me to fight’
Before Powell started his apprenticeship as an engineer he worked as a steward.
Powell was working the day Anthony Joshua defeated Wladimir Klitschko in 2017 at Wembley Stadium, winning the WBA and IBO heavyweight titles.
That was the moment he decided to pursue a career in martial arts.
“Being there, I saw the crowd, the walkouts and I was just like, ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do’,” said Powell.
“Before the Joshua fight I was happy [training] as a hobby, but then the likes of [Conor] McGregor, and being at that Joshua fight, that changed my mindset to thinking I could make a career out of it.
“I could change my life and I could change my family’s life.”
Powell looks back to the moment he told his teachers at college he wanted to be an MMA fighter.
“I was in sixth form and I was under-performing and I had a meeting with my subject teachers. And they were all asking me, ‘So, what do you want to do?’,” said Powell.
“And I said I want to be an MMA fighter. And my mum kicked me under the table and sort of looked at me as if to say, ‘Don’t say that’.”
Powell says his mum, who is a former 800m runner, was initially sceptical of his aspirations to fight, but he convinced her by working hard in the gym.
Following Powell’s win over Amine in March, he celebrated by dancing with his mum inside the cage.
“When you show someone you’re putting your mind to it and are dedicated to something, you get their support,” said Powell.
“My mum has been my biggest supporter. She raised me and she was an athlete herself, so she’s always on to me about my mindset.”
‘I fought in leisure centres, strip clubs, all sorts of places’
Powell will be fighting in front of up to 6,000 people at the Zenith Paris arena on Saturday, but it wasn’t long ago he was competing in front of hundreds.
Powell only turned professional in 2020 and before that had been fighting in “all sorts of places”, including leisure centres and even strip clubs.
He also had to sell his own tickets for the events but says he is thankful for the experience because it helped to shape his personality.
“It’s the grassroots of the sport. You’re getting nothing for it but it’s part of the journey. You’ve got to do it,” said Powell.
“It’s a lot of character building, but it’s needed. It’s necessary. It builds character, it builds resilience, it’s education.”
Saturday’s card is headlined by an all-French welterweight bout between Cedric Doumbe and Jordan Zebo.
Elsewhere on the bill, Manchester’s Dakota Ditcheva faces Sweden’s Cornelia Holm as she looks to reach the women’s flyweight finals.
Ditcheva, 24, beat Malin Hermansson in March for her eighth professional win, continuing the unbeaten start to her career.
