He'll be walking into the cage at 3am, but Suffolk UFC star Arnold Allen is intending to put on a masterclass in Manchester this weekend.
Trimley St Martin's Allen, the sixth-ranked featherweight on the planet, faces Giga Chikadze at UFC 304 at the brand new Co-op Live Arena this Saturday.
But, while the show - the biggest and best MMA card ever seen on these shores - is being held in the UK, it will run on American time for the huge US PPV audience.
That means Allen, whose fight opens the main card, will be fighting at 3am on Sunday morning - and he's gradually been shifting to a nocturnal routine to prepare.
"Fortunately, my girlfriend is on board too, so I’m not doing it alone!" he laughed. "And my boxing coach Russ Smith, as soon as he found out the fight was at 3am, he said ‘let me know when you want the 3am sessions, we’ll get it.'
“So the last few weeks I’ve been doing 3am boxing and weirdly, now I’ve been adjusting to this time, I feel more awake at 3am than I do say now (7pm).
“I’m wide awake at 3am, I have the best session and then my ‘morning session’ at 5pm, I’m a bit lower energy, which is strange.”
Allen trains with UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards, who tops the bill as he defends his belt against Belal Muhammad this weekend - and the Suffolk southpaw has been taking advice from the champ's camp.
"It’s been a gradual process," he explained. "Leon hired an expert coach to give him some advice – a sleep therapist type coach – and that was the advice, to shift it forward gradually.
“Because I was thinking ‘yeah I’ll just do an all-nighter one night, go to bed at 4am and I’ll be right as rain!
“My usual schedule, I’m in bed at 10pm, up at 6am. I moved it to midnight to 8am and for a week I was exhausted, like a zombie.
“I did that five weeks out, then it was 2am to 10am and now I’m on 4.30am till 1pm.
“It’s been a little bit tricky. With the training and food schedule moving, your digestion gets a bit strange!
“It throws you off your normal routine entirely – but I’m all adjusted now and everything seems back to normal. I’m glad I did it.”
Allen (19-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) will need to be at his peak come 3am Sunday morning.
Having won his first ten fights in the Premier League of MMA, he's now dropped his last two - a narrow points defeat to icon Max Holloway and a controversial decision loss last time out to the unbeaten Movsar Evloev.
In the tenth-ranked Chikadze (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) he faces an elite-level kickboxer who will fancy his chances of out-striking Allen and handing him a third straight loss.
But Allen says Chikadze has had an easier ride in his UFC career to date.
“If you look through his resume, it’s all strikers – and there’s a reason for that," he explained.
“For me, I’m also a striker, but I haven’t had that luxury. So my whole career has been the worst type of match-ups – guys that want to take me down and stall.
“I’ve had a couple of matches with strikers and I love it. I relish it when I get to fight another striker and we can have a stand-up fight.”
Asked how he'd like the fight to play out, Allen responded: “A one punch knock out would be pretty sweet!
"But no, we put in a lot of hard work for months and years really and it would be nice to go out there and show my skills, show a masterclass and ultimately get a finish.
“I want to show my level, show where I’m at and show the level of my striking, all these things.”
A win over Chikadze would put Allen right back in the title mix in a division now ruled by heavy-handed Spaniard Ilia Topuria, who knocked out long-reigning champ Alex Volkanovski last time out.
“I think it’s wide open, honestly," Allen said of the 145lbs division. "It would be nice to see Ilia fight Holloway.
“Volkanovski, as dominant of a champion as he was, I don’t see him getting back to that.
“I don’t see him getting back to the title, and I don’t see him coming back as he was and being a dominant champion again.
“He’s a bit older and he’s put in a lot of work to be at the top for that long and hold the belt, fending off contender after contender and stepping up short notice to take these other fights.
“It takes its toll and he’s not a young man anymore. I feel old and he’s a good few years older than me!
“And I haven’t been at the peak of the sport yet, where the pressure is on every time – and he’s a guy who revelled in that pressure and thrived.
“But at some point it cracks, and I feel like that’s where we’re at now, unfortunately.
“Then you’ve got (Brian) Ortega who’s going up a weight, Yair (Rodriguez) I don’t know what he’s doing, Movsar I guess he’s undefeated – but he’ll probably fight next year!”
Thanks so much to everyone supporting me, the Almighty shop has been buzzing means a lot! Here’s the link to get ya merch https://t.co/zqokvTFwC2 code UFC304 gets you in on the sale 💙 pic.twitter.com/oFqWKTnnmE
— Arnold billy allen (@Arnoldbfa) July 22, 2024
A spectacular win this weekend could even propel the humble Suffolk puncher into the conversation around a fight with champion Topuria.
And he feels it's a fight which suits him.
“Yeah, definitely," he enthused. "I think the skills I’ve got match-up pretty well.
“It’ll be interesting to see more of him, because I still feel like he’s the champion and knocked out one of the best ever in Volk - but there’s still so many questions (about him).”
- You can watch UFC 304 live on TNT Sports from 11.15pm on Saturday night
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here