Newcastle heavyweight boxer Bryce Jones got asked just six days ago to fight hulking South Sydney prop Daniel Suluka-Fifita.
Having prepared for a bout last weekend that had already been cancelled, the tradie by day and fighter by night didn't hesitate taking on the emerging NRL star.
Some back and forth with his Gateshead trainer Nathan Swadling and the organisers, No Limit Boxing, and the 31-year-old was added to Wednesday night's card at Aware Super Theatre in Sydney.
"I got the phone call to see if I was interested and of course the answer was yes," Jones, a former rugby league player himself with the Maitland Pickers and Port Stephens Sharks, told the Newcastle Herald.
"My trainer called in the morning and it snowballed from there. A few calls throughout the day and we locked it in by the afternoon.
"I was meant to have a fight that got called off, so I was ready to go. I thought I would take it with both hands."
The 31-year-old, who has a professional record of one loss and one win - the latter secured on the Super Saturday card in Newcastle last month, admitted ahead of the fight's weigh-in on Tuesday that he knew almost nothing of Suluka-Fifita, nor if he had a boxing background.
"I'm not sure, I haven't had time or bothered to look into that," Jones, who runs his own business, B J Plastering, said.
"I've just been focusing on myself. I only saw him for the first time yesterday at the press conference.
"He seems like a good dude, but once you're in there you're looking to kill or be killed.
"I'm sure that's what he'll look to do, it doesn't matter what sort of background he is coming from.
"That's the plan for both of us and after, shake hands and have a beer."
The Rabbitohs prop, 25 games into his NRL career, is eight years younger than Jones and making his debut in the fight, a preliminary bout on a card headlined by Michael Zerafa and Danilo Creati and also featuring Paul Gallen and Justin Hodges' rematch.
"He's an athlete, he is a big lump of a dude," Jones said of Suluka-Fifita.
"Obviously he can move and obviously he is fit, so I'm expecting an athlete to come at me in the ring.
"But they have opted for [four] two-minute rounds, instead of the traditional three-minute rounds.
"So that sort of showed their hand. I think he'll come out and swing for the hills.
"That's up to me then to weather the storm and use that to my advantage."
Jones, who took up boxing about five years ago - notching 10 wins in 11 amateur fights - was not concerned by the potential influence of Suluka-Fifita's trainer, the legendary Johnny Lewis.
"You can be trained by anyone, you can be trained by Cus D'Amato - it doesn't matter," he said.
"Obviously it is going to help, he is a legend of the sport and is going to teach him things, but I'm trained by Nathan Swadling. That's all that matters for me."
Jones hopes the fight, one of the earlier bouts that will be broadcast for free on Fox Sports, can help propel his professional career.
"It's massive. It's a TV fight and it's something you're not going to get on the smaller shows," he said. "I run a small business, but I want to take this as far as I can."
