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.
