Going All In:

2 years later, I travelled to Thailand with around £1,300 and one goal: to experience what it would take to become a professional fighter.

That trip changed everything.

I went for 6 weeks with £1300, trained every day, rationed my food to £5 a day, and slept in the gym.

When I returned, I was gutted. I had to return to reality (aka school).

So I made a decision that my parents said (and I quote) “******* stupid*

I left college and went all in on becoming a UFC world champion.

There was no backup plan. No guarantee it would work.

Just the belief that I could, somehow, make it happen.

The Fighter’s Mindset:

For six years, MMA was my entire life.

I trained and competed around the world across Thailand, Australia, America and the UK.

But it wasn't as glamorous as people might imagine.

I mopped the gym floors, 

slept on the same mats I trained on, 

and at times, I would even use a crash mat as a blanket.

But I still loved it.

I got to experience pressure that most people will never understand.

The pressure of stepping into a cage.

The pressure of someone trying to put me to sleep.

The pressure of preparing for a moment where everything I have worked for comes down to one day.

But I wouldn't have had it any other way.

because if it wasn't MMA, I wasn't interested in the slightest.

Everything else just felt like a distraction.

Losing Everything:

But in 2023, everything changed.

An injury in training took me out of the cage and forced me to rebuild.

But this time, not in the cage.

For years, I had trained my body. Trained my mind. Trained myself to perform.

But suddenly, I had to rebuild something I had never trained before.

My speech. 

The Hardest Part:

The hardest part wasn't just losing fighting.

It was losing the identity I had spent years building.

And honestly, it took me almost three years to fully admit that.

For so long, fighting was who I was. It was the one thing I had sacrificed everything for, the thing I had built my entire life around.

The injury affected more than just my ability to compete.

It affected my confidence and made communication harder than ever.

For someone who had spent years comfortable in intense environments, suddenly using my voice in front of others became one of my biggest challenges.

The Rebuild:

I paid for specialists, mentors, courses, the full lot. You probably won't believe me, but I even started singing lessons.

I started with simple exercises, mouth movements and rebuilding the fundamentals of using my voice.

I joined Toastmasters. Competed. Became a district champion.

And began speaking to bigger audiences and realised... I was getting a bit obsessed.

What started as a personal challenge became an obsession with understanding public speaking.

Today:

I combine the performance mindset I developed through professional fighting with the presentation skills I have developed through public speaking & coaching.

I deliver keynote talks and workshops that help people develop the mindset to perform under pressure and communicate with confidence.