CAGE FIGHTER Jay Bacchus goes into the ring for the first time tonight as a professional when he takes on John Hambrook at Guildord’s Mandolay Hotel – and the fight has already got some added spice.

Bacchus was rumbled when he went to Hambrook’s gym to try and suss out his opponent.

Twenty-four year-old Bacchus said: “I don’t know much about the guy I’m fighting other than he’s had a few fights so I went over to his club at Aylesbury to try and get a good look at him.

“I signed in as though I was a new member and I got turned away.

“There was a poster on the wall advertising my fight against him and they recognised my name and sent me away.

“I didn’t even get to see the guy I’m fighting, but he will know that I’ve tried to see him and I don’t know how he will react to that.

“I know that if he had come over to my training place it would have been a bit like he was coming onto my territory.”

Hambrook has experience in the cage and has won his last two, while Bacchus will be up against it as he enters unchartered territory.

The advertising sales rep said: “Most people don’t win their first fight in the cage because it is so daunting being in the cage and having the audience there.

“I’m prepared for that and I’m prepared that I might lose. But I’m going in to try and win and to pummel the guy.

“I’m not afraid of getting hit, I’ve been doing martial arts since I was a kid, but this is a step up.

“It goes beyond any other fighting sport. It is the roughest and toughest thing going.

“This has been my dream and it is becoming reality now.”

He has spent ten weeks in full training for the fight but he knows nothing will prepare him for the moment when he steps into the cage for tonight’s welterweight bust-up in front of 500 blood-thirsty fans.

He’s put in the hard work, he’s done the training, he’s changed his diet, he’s put his friends and family on hold and now he faces the moment of truth.

And he knows the surrounds of the ring with its tall wire fences will be very different from anything he has experienced while training on a squash court at the Handy Cross sports centre.

He said: “I’ve been hiring out a squash court there, putting the mats down and having all-out fights there with another cage fighter, Matt Holland, a few friends and ju-jitsu instructor Kevin Capel.

“I’ve done everything I can. I don’t think I can get any more prepared.

“It’s going to be daunting because I am walking into something I don’t really know. Sometimes I sit at my desk and think what have I got myself into.

“But I am excited about this and I have been training for this my whole life.

“I want to come out of this first fight as a winner but even if I don’t I will come back because second time around I will know exactly what I’m getting into.”

Bacchus will certainly have support in Guildford with 35 family and fans following him.