His rubbish company, Quick Tip Rubbish Solutions, had a local job on the south coast and he was not about to turn it down.

“I did a full day Monday,” Dykes (7-0-1) tells The Ring. “Half day Tuesday but Monday was busy.

“I went running at 6am, got back, quick shower, straight to work for an 8am start.

"We had hardcore on Monday, it was a load of tiles that needed clearing out of a building. We cleared all of them onto my rubbish van, took two loads of it, then onto the tip. We did a load of wood as well and then knocked off about 4 o’clock.

“It wasn’t an easy start to fight week now I think about it but I just love it. I don’t know why, but I love it.”

Experts will probably tell you it was not ideal preparation when you’re only five days out from fighting a 6-foot-9 two-time Olympic medalist called Ivan Dychko, but Dykes has always preferred doing things his own way.

He was 19 by the time he decided to try boxing and he speaks to The Ring on the 10-year anniversary of his first ever white-collar fight. “I’m glad we had this chat,” he says. “Otherwise I might not have realized.”

Many of the mates he started alongside fell away but Dykes had found something he was passionate about. Then, in 2022, against all the odds, he won the super heavyweight ABA title, joining a prestigious list which includes the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Audley Harrison.

“I was just buzzing,” he says. “I always said I’d win it. When I started as an amateur I said I needed to win the ABA title and that’s what I did. But I didn’t realise how big it was, suddenly everyone seemed to know me out of nowhere.”

By then, Dykes had a healthy following, who would follow him into the pros when he turned over late in 2023. He has boxed eight times since, with seven wins and a draw, but far from providing a better life for him and his family, it has “cost him a fortune” so far.

“A lot of people don’t realise that you actually don’t make any money,” he says. “Most boxers end up out of pocket. It’s a hard business, especially on small halls.

“I’ve put a lot of money into this … like, a lot of money. It all started really good but I didn’t realise how skint it can make you. I wasn’t getting on big shows so it was costing me money.

“In December 2024, I boxed and I ended up losing £2,000 in ticket sales. I remember leaving that night and thinking ‘oh my God, I’ve just basically paid £2,000 to box. What am I doing?' I said from that day onwards, I’m not fighting a journeyman again.”

The bleak picture Dykes paints might go some way to explaining why he was reticent to turn down work, even on fight week, and exactly why he did not hesitate to accept when his manager phoned him with an offer straight out of left-field the previous Monday.

“I had just got in from work and was having a nap when my manager calls,” Dykes says. “He tells me that Zuffa have rang him and there’s a fight available. He said it’s against Ivan Dychko, all 6-foot-9 of him, and I said ‘absolutely yes.'

“I had been sparring Jermaine Franklin for the Moses Itauma fight and he boxed Dychko before that. So I’ve been watching him, he’s a big guy, I just said ‘let’s go.'

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s for great money ... money I’ve never seen before, but this is high risk, high reward. I said, 'Sweet, I’ll sign the contract.'"

In the same summer that Dykes made his white collar debut, Dychko (15-1, 14 KOs) was busy claiming his second Olympic medal at the 2016 Games. His three at the World Amateur Championships, in 2011, 2013, and 2015, has made him one of the most decorated amateur super heavyweights in history. “And who’s fighting him now?,” the southpaw laughs. “Harvey Dykes from Brighton.

Despite such amateur prominence, the Kazakh’s professional career has not quite gone to plan. He arrived in Bournemouth this week for his place on the card headlined by Chris Billam-Smith’s clash with Ryan Rozicki for only his 17th pro outing since turning over nine years ago.

Dychko, who lost in the 2012 Olympic semi-final to eventual champion Joshua, has not boxed since he lost on points to Franklin in September.

“He’s good, he’s very good but I believe I’m good too,” Dykes says. “I don’t think anyone has seen what I’m capable of. But maybe I’m one of those fighters who can do it in the gym but not in the ring. And, listen, we’re about to find out.

“But when I look at Dychko, it’s crazy how it hasn’t taken off. It’s weird isn’t it? He hasn’t stepped up. I suppose we are going to see why.”

For Dykes, accepting such a fight means some long-awaited financial return for the hours in the gym but a victory will also open more doors with Zuffa boxing.

“The money here is brilliant,” he says. “But if I win this, the next fight is for double this money. To say that having never earned money from boxing is amazing.

“It would all be worth it in the end if I win this one. I will change my family’s lives with a win here. I’ve got two kids and a stepson. Three mouths to feed.

“I’m a working-class man. I don’t have money, all of it goes on the kids, their food, everything else that we all have to pay for.

“Winning this would just help massively. I’ve put so much into boxing and I’m finally here now, where I always thought I would get. Now it means I can go and change all our lives if I win this one fight.

“But what is stood in front of me? A 6-foot-9 wrecking ball. I’m going to go and do it the hard way.”