The bright lights of Las Vegas are a long way from the backyards of Epping, but in the midst of the biggest week in UFC history, they might as well be one and the same for lightweight fighter Jake Matthews.
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The 21-year-old is heading deep into enemy territory, fighting Las Vegas-based Kevin Lee in the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 23, just one day before the biggest card in the history of the promotion, UFC 200.
Matthews is used to having the crowd behind him, but he knows that on Saturday he'll be treated as the villain in front of a sell-out crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and he's not concerned in the slightest.
He made his UFC debut as a 19-year-old in New Zealand, and every subsequent fight of his five-fight UFC career has taken place in Australia, in front of at least 70 of his friends and family.
That support is fine in Australia, but he knew he couldn't count on those numbers in Las Vegas.
"Nothing can prepare you to fight in front of a UFC crowd, especially in Vegas," he said.
"I'd normally have about 70 of my friends and family coming over but this time it's two or three, you know you wouldn't expect them to make that long journey over.
"Kevin Lee lives in Vegas at the moment and being American he's going to have the crowd backing him over there, but I'm ready for that and the crowd isn't what wins you the fight."
Matthews' last fight, a third-round submission victory over highly touted American prospect Johnny Case at UFC Brisbane in May, saw him awarded his first post-fight bonus – a cool $50,000 for fight of the night.
It's a massive boost for a young fighter on the rise but Matthews, who has a habit of being matched with similarly young prospects, is eager for a more experienced foe – not that he's looking past 23-year-old Lee.
"I think after this fight, fighting another young guy in Kevin Lee, the UFC will definitely be looking at maybe pairing me up with a veteran, a guy like Gray Maynard or maybe Diego Sanchez, guys that are really seasoned and experienced and see how I go against them.
"All the guys I've fought are young, fit guys like myself, the UFC have been pairing us up to see who comes out on top and I've been getting the wins so far, so I'd hope to fight a bigger name guy in my next fight, but I need to get the win first and I'm not looking past this fight.
"Lee gets a little bit wild, a little bit loose with his striking, I think when there's a bit of pressure put on him his technique goes out the window a little bit and he'll try and swing and brawl.
"I take that as a bit of a panic, the fighters who can stay composed and pick their shots are the ones you have to worry about, not the ones that are just sort of wailing around so we've taken note of that and ways we can take advantage of that."
Speaking of taking advantage, Matthews is one of the new breed of fighters who knows exactly how valuable social media can be to his career.
He's also seen the downside of social media in the form of Tyler Manawaroa, his cast-mate on TUF: Nations, who was excluded from the finale of the show after a Canadian fighter dug up a seemingly racist post Manawaroa had made on Instagram two years earlier.
Manawaroa hasn't fought since, and Matthews said the key was simply using common sense and picking your spots.
"Anything can come back and bite you in the end so you have to be careful," he said.
"You look at some of the younger fighters now and some of them have more followers than some of the more experiences fellows, and it's all about the content you put up. You have to experiment a little bit. Seeing which ones get the likes. So you have to put up the content that people are getting around, the more likes the more shares and the more people who are going to see it and like your page. The more they like your page, the more you attract sponsors. Your social media pages can also help you in the UFC, if you're a big presence, people want to see you fight against high profile fighters."
