With Conor McGregor's backing and a fondness for getting punched in the face, Dublin teenager Nate 'The Great' Kelly is preparing to take the next step towards MMA immortality at the 3Arena next month.
At 19 years of age, he will become only the second ever amateur to compete in the Professional Fighters League (PFL), after Biaggio Ali Walsh, grandson of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.
"It's good company to be in. It shows how highly they think of me," Kelly told the Irish Daily Star.
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Training with top coach John Kavanagh at the famous Straight Blast Gym, he has the swagger that's needed to get noticed in this brutal and punishing sport.
"It's a business at the end of the day and they are investing early. It's only going to blow up from here," he says.
"I think they are smart, they understand how good I am inside the cage, and also how big a star I can be outside the cage.
"I feel like I have a good platform now. This is the first step, the first phase of what I want to do. I'm only going to keep it going from there.
"It's only going to build from there. The stock is only going to rise."
There's substance to Kelly's confident proclamations.
The rising Tallaght star has not yet hit 20, but he has already amassed an incredible honour roll, including national, European and World Kickboxing Championship wins.
He has 50,000 followers on Instagram (@natekellymma), while his record at national level is incredible. No one has beaten him since the age of six.
"Every fight I have fought in the nationals, I have won," he says. "That's four or five fights every tournament from six to 18."
Last year he achieved his biggest result to date, winning his first ever world title.
He's the kid that famously interrupted a McGregor press conference in 2015 and who told Dana White that he would be a future UFC fighter.
The two men were so impressed with the 11-year-old that White flew him out to Las Vegas and McGregor began tracking his progress, while he even made an appearance on the Late Late Show.
"He contacted me after the news came out about the December fight," he says of McGregor. "He let me know he was happy to see me get this opportunity. He still supports me and keeps an eye on me."
Kelly is odds-on to be the next big fighter to come out of Ireland. December 8 has the potential to be an 'I was there' moment for fans of the sport - and Kelly knows it.
He dismisses Northern Irish opponent Callum Seaton, saying he's not in his league.
"I think he is just going to want to hold me and then take me down and try to sniff my jocks for three rounds," laughs Kelly.
"But I'm going to kick him off or snipe him. I'm going to put him down early; first or second round. I don't see him getting out of the first round and if he does he is going to get finished in the second.
"I don't think he is anywhere near the skill level I have. Once I start putting my hands on him and start hitting him, he'll fall."
He has been waiting for this moment for a long time. As a four-year-old he was fascinated by the Bruce Lee films that he watched with his grandfather.
His mum, seeing an easily-ignited spark in her son, signed him up for kickboxing lessons at Tallaght Martial Arts (TMA), where he still trains to this day.
"I was never one to shy away from a fight as a kid. If there was something on the football pitch or somebody started on me, I was always one in the middle of it," he says.
"My ma kind of saw that and had to draw me into something, so the kickboxing was what I gravitated towards at the start.
"I remember with my grandad I used to watch old kung-fu, Bruce Lee, all those types of films. I always had an interest.
"The kickboxing gym that I'm still in now, they started at my primary school. My ma saw that they were there, so I went down in the evenings and I was hooked straight away.
"As far back as I can remember, it's always been martial arts. It was my passion.
"Other kids have football and different things that they like, but everything revolved around this. I had different ambitions and dreams."
He took up jiu jitsu too, and trained twice a day, sometimes waking up at 6am for a pre-school session.
He was fearless right from the start and revelled in the bruising nature of his sport.
"I can't survive without it. During lockdown when I wasn't training two times a day I was going mad," he says.
"Even when I was on holiday there a while ago and I was away for two weeks, I just wanted to be back training.
"I was in Portugal, but I was cracking up by the end of it. I needed to get back to the gym.
"There was a fitness centre there, but it's not the same, lifting weights. If I'm not getting punched in the face I don't feel normal. It's the opposite for most people, but for me I need that."
He acknowledges that: "You need to be a bit nuts, I suppose, to make it in MMA.
"I don't know, it's just natural for me. I just enjoy it. You can train all you want, but I think you need that natural bit of craziness to be able to step into a cage and get punched in the face.
It's not for the average person, but I couldn't see my life without it."
So where does he see his life going now that he is preparing for his biggest fight to date?
"I have little plans, little goals; five-month plans and then five-year plans," he explains.
"The five-month plan is to get this fight down and then get another one down, and keep racking up the wins, and eventually take that step to pro and continue the same success there.
"That's the plan - keep winning, keep evolving and become the best some day.
"I accomplished a dream by being the best in the world at kickboxing. The next one is being the best in the world at mixed martial arts."
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