The unbeaten flyweight isn't scouring BoxRec or YouTube. Daord has resorted to pulling down his VR headset, opening a boxing game and waiting around in the lobby for someone to challenge him.

“You’ve just got to throw everything. Just give it everything you've got. Make it a proper Wetherspoons fight,” Daord (12-0, 3 KOs) told The Ring. His VR record isn’t available.

“There was an American who did give me a good fight but I found out he was just sitting down. Sitting stationary just throwing punches and I was standing up, going for it properly... dripping with sweat.

“I’m using my footwork in the living room, the lot. I’ve just got to make sure I don't get too close to the telly... I get more fights on there than I do in real life.”

Lots of fighters complain at a lack of opportunity or activity. Few have as much room for complaint as Daord.

The 10-year anniversary of his debut passed last week but the 29-year-old from Birkenhead has only recently started to see any kind of reward for his efforts.

Since turning professional as an eight-time national amateur champion, Daord has had just 12 fights. The past three years have yielded just three fights but crucially, he has kept himself in the picture by collecting a trio of titles in that time.

On September 5 he will box the unbeaten and highly-ranked Zimbabwean Ndabezinlhe Phiri (11-0, 5 KOs) at the BOXPARK in Liverpool. A win would make a genuine mark with the sanctioning bodies and finally open some doors.

“I’ve got a good pedigree but it was the political side, I thought,” he said.

“People didn't really want me on the shows because I wasn't a massive ticket seller when I first turned pro. I thought it was that at the start, then it became having nothing for anyone to gain ... but I had everything to gain.

“I was a banana skin for anyone, it doesn't matter what level. So I think that became a thing. Then I won the English and British but in between every fight I was out for a year because I couldn't get a fight.”

A talented and confident southpaw, it isn’t hard to see why Daord has been avoided. The longer he spent out of the spotlight and the more his profile shrunk, the easier it became for rivals to pretend he didn't exist.

In February 2025, lots of interested parties will have paid close attention as Daord travelled to Scotland for a vacant British junior bantamweight title fight against unbeaten and heavy-handed Matthew McHale.

It was exactly the type of fight that can shine a light on any weaknesses but the way Daord dug in to win a unanimous decision caused potential opponents to look the opposite way again.

“I think the McHale fight proved all the right things but also all the wrong things to keep me out of the ring for a lot longer,” he said.

“Doing the 12 rounds. Matthew was an active kid who stopped his last opponent before he fought me. I got caught and hurt early in the fight with a body shot, then he tested my jaw and chin as well.

“So I think it just answered all the wrong questions and that put me stuck in the mud for another year after that because Matthew didn't want the rematch and no one in Britain wanted it.”

Lots of fighters in Daord’s position would have allowed frustration to get the better of them and drifted away from the sport or taken their eye off the ball, losing to somebody they were expected to beat.

Daord has somehow remained patient. He hasn’t lost his motivation or desire and has returned to the same weight he made when first stepping onto a professional scale as a hopeful 19-year-old.

He believes that he still has time to let his talent take him to the top.

“I'm a bit older than I wanted to be but I'm still only coming into my prime,” he said.

“Maybe it was a blessing in disguise because I probably would have been fast-tracked and maybe wasn't ready at the early stages for the level I thought I was at, even though I was sparring top fighters like Jazza Dickens, Kev Satchell, Ryan Farag and Zhanat Zhakiyanov, who won the WBA world title.

I was sparring all them types of people aged 13 and 14 as I was coming up in the game.

“I knew I was at a high level. Maybe under pressure, under all the big lights and stuff it would have changed back then when I was still young and hadn't come into my man strength but I feel like I've always been ready. I've always been a top level fighter, just haven't had the opportunity or big stages to show it.

“I see fighters doing moves that I've done when I was 14. I’m like, “Sick. I would have pulled that out years ago.””

Despite the success of global stars like Roman Gonzalez, Naoya Inoue and Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez, the lower weight classes aren’t the easiest sell in Britain.

Daord could provide a much needed spark.

At some point, he will get the chance to fight on a major show and promoters will immediately pat themselves on the back for discovering such an exciting talent. In reality, he has been under their noses for years.

“Obviously I'm cocky as well at times but it’s not cockiness to the Ben Whittaker type of status where it gets a bit disrespectful. I feel like you'd love me or hate me sort of thing,” he said.

“It'd be the same as Ben I think as well because of my attitude outside the ring. I don't like people that much. I'd rather live on a farm with loads of animals so it depends what mood you get me in. I feel like in all ways I've got all of that potential to be one of them types of fighters. At the moment I've just got to sit and watch them haven’t I?”