Officially, O'Leary's 12-round junior welterweight fight with Maxi Hughes will act as the chief support to the WBA junior lightweight title clash between Jazza Dickens and Anthony Cacace.

Unofficially, the 26-year-old Irishman may well be the most popular man in the famous arena.

“I remember jumping over fences there at the 3Arena just to grab some pallets for a bonfire. It's literally a walk,” O’Leary (18-0, 10 KOs) told The Ring.

“I grew up around it, it's part of me. It's part of my heritage pretty much and fighting there just means so much to me at this moment of time.”

O’Leary was a star amateur and multi-time national champion but has never boxed in Dublin as a professional and his dedicated fanbase have had to follow his career on television, rather than in person.

The news that he was finally returning home galvanised support in the local area. Last Saturday, the former European champion organised a community 5k run to end camp and hundreds of fans showed their support.

O’Leary was 22 years old when he decided to leave Ireland and seek his fortune in England.

He hasn’t been able to rely on his large, passionate support to push him into position and has had to work hard and establish himself as a genuine contender through his efforts in the ring.

The struggles he has endured to reach this point make his return home even more special.

“My partner was pregnant and I left for London with one backpack and a thousand quid in my pocket,” he said. “I spent €70 getting from Gatwick airport to south London and was left with €930 that had to do me for the next seven or eight weeks over there in camp. I had no idea where I was going to be living. I got to the accommodation I was living in and it was a smelly, dirty, damp, wet pub where you wouldn't leave a cat.

“I was like what am I doing here? There was nothing in the room. I was sleeping on the floor. I used a few towels for a bit of comfort, went to Primark and got a few pillows and a duvet and had a small telly.

“That was me just leaving with a dream. There was many times I got sick over there because of how ruthless the place was but I kept going. I kept believing and there was times during COVID where I couldn't go home. There was a time when my missus had our baby and I had to go back to camp straight away. It’s been tough.”

After a successful run with Al Smith at the iBox gym in Bromley, O'Leary now trains with Joe McNally in Liverpool but the pair have spent the final few weeks of training at the same Dublin Dockyards Boxing Club he started fighting in as a seven-year-old boy.

Those final preparations had to be altered slightly when O’Leary’s original opponent Mark Chamberlain withdrew from the fight. The experienced Hughes (29-8-2, 6 KOs) isn’t the easiest opponent to adjust for on late notice but O’Leary believes that he has worked too hard to fall short at this stage.

“All them sacrifices, it’s all character building and it's who I am now,” he said.

“When somebody wants to go pro and they think of the lavish lifestyle, that’s the whole wrong conception. It’s hard work, dedication and - let’s be honest - it's just a myself and a dream.”