AARON CHALMERS would never have bet he would be a TV celebrity on the cusp of fighting boxing royalty when he was stuck on the oil rigs.
Chalmers shot to fame on MTV’s hit reality series Geordie Shore but swapped the booze for boxing in recent years.
And he has landed himself a life-changing fight against American great Floyd Mayweather, on February 25 at the O2 Arena.
It marks an incredible rise for Chalmers, who at one point questioned his life prospects while scaffolding on the rig.
He told SunSport: “I used to stand there, obviously because it was on the water, I used to stand looking into the middle of the sea and think, ‘There’s got to be something better for me, there has to be something different.’
“I couldn’t see myself doing it for the rest of my life, on the oil rigs, but I never f*****g thought it would lead to this.
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“If someone had told me ten years ago, ‘Put a bet on that you’re going to fight Floyd Mayweather’ I would’ve been like, ‘No chance.’
“It hasn’t sunk in, I’m going to be honest with you. It still hasn’t sunk in that it’s happening.
“But it is happening and hopefully it’s going to do me wonders for my fight career.”
Chalmers left the construction trade at 26 to sign up for a life of partying in the Geordie Shore house, where he spent four years of his life.
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And the same strive for something bigger in life is what has helped him land a meeting in the ring with boxing’s best in Mayweather.
Chalmers, 35, said: “There was something in us, I just knew I wasn’t going to be scaffolding for the rest of my life.
“I couldn’t tell you what it was going to be, but I just couldn’t see myself being on the oil rigs for the rest of my life.
“Which was a good job by the way, I was getting well paid, but there was just something in us, I never settle.
“I always want to push on and try and get something more and, even last year was a quiet year but I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to get something big, something big’s going to come.’
“Now here we are in possibly the biggest fight of my entire life. It doesn’t get much bigger than this.”
Chalmers packed his Geordie Shore bags to make a switch to professional fighting in 2017, debuting in MMA.
After three years, seven bouts and five wins, he made the move to boxing last July, beating Alexander Zeledon.
During the six-year period, Mayweather, 45, officially retired from the sport but has continued to box in exhibition bouts.
And he announced plans to debut in the UK but was left scrambling for an opponent when Muay Thai legend Liam Harrison, 37, pulled out injured.
Chalmers took it upon himself to reach out to a mutual contact he has within Mayweather’s team to put himself forward.
And after a few days of agonising negotiations and waiting, he was given the green light.
Chalmers said: “It’s surreal, seeing the promotion stuff online, seeing him and me in the same videos, it’s like, ‘This is actually happening.’
“It’s crazy. I’m not sleeping too bad, I think because I’m training so hard I don’t sleep too bad!
“But about an hour before bed, I’m thinking, ‘What the f***, I’m going to be fighting Floyd Mayweather, it’s crazy.”
Chalmers has been training since the new year, having accepted a fight on KSI’s Misfits promotion against an 80kg southpaw.
And after being afforded the deal of a lifetime, Chalmers hopes for more to come in a jam-packed 2023.
He said: “There’s been phone calls, Whatsapps, I feel after the Floyd fight things are going to explode on the boxing scene for me.
“There’s talks about fights for me in April, May, July, so everything’s opening up now and that’s before we’ve even had the fight.
“So if I can go in there and put on a good performance, who knows what’s going to come after it.”
Chalmers has overcome bouts of anxiety during his career, fighting off the harsh trolls online.
And now he finds himself just weeks away from an extraordinary exhibition with Mayweather, in just his second boxing bout.
He said: “The thing is, social media these days everyone’s got an opinion.
“So you can listen to everyone’s opinion or think, f*** them and do your own thing.
“I used to look and listen to the comments and think, ‘Maybe I’m doing the wrong thing.’ But if I listened to everyone’s comments I’d never leave the house.
“Apparently I’m a s*** dad, I’m a s*** boxer, I’m a s*** f*****g drinker, everything online I’m s*** at.
“But I’ve had a f*****g successful ten-year career since leaving the scaffold so I can’t be that at things.
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“So yeah, I feel like you have to brush it to one side. Everyone’s going to have an opinion, but they’re not doing what I’m doing.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
