Sam Rennie has evaded sharks and battled through homelessness en route to competing in the biggest fight of his career.
On May 30, at Thunderdome 50 in Metro City, Northbridge, Western Australia, the warrior will aim to make history by becoming the first ever boxer from the Isle of Man to win a professional title.
In a massive leap in competition, Rennie will take on the experienced Asyer Aluman, for the WBC Australasia Silver Super Featherweight Championship.
However, with the sportsman having already overcome so much adversity, the 23-year-old can’t wait to set foot inside the ring and do what he does best.
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Sam Rennie opens up about nearly being eaten by a shark
Growing up in a family of successful boxers, with his two brothers also excelling in the sport, Sam Rennie was determined to carve out his own path in the fight game.
His adventure has taken him from his homeland, to sparring Leigh Wood and Kid Galahad in the Canary Islands, all the way to Australia.
However, when the athlete arrived in the southern hemisphere, he was met with a nasty surprise in the form of a close encounter with one of the scariest animals on the planet.
In an exclusive interview with Bloody Knockout, he chuckled: “The craziest story I have is probably nearly getting eaten by a shark in my first couple of weeks in Australia.
“When I first got here, I was jumping in and out [of the sea]. I had one of those phone cases where you can bring your phone into the water.
“I jumped in and I saw this massive shark. I’d forgotten that I was in Australia, you can’t just go jumping in water, you’re surrounded by crocodiles and sharks.”
Sam Rennie opens up about battle with homelessness
While Rennie luckily managed to evade the shark, the start of his time in Australia was soon shrouded in adversity when he found himself with nowhere to stay.
The super featherweight candidly revealed: “I found myself in a bad way, briefly. I had my first professional fight, and before that, I couldn’t get any sponsors. I left my job so I could train full-time. I wanted to go 110% in, not one foot in the jungle.
“It was all great at the time, but then after the debut, when I wanted to get back to work, they were like, ‘No’. I was like, ‘What am I going to do now’? I couldn’t pay my rent. I just found myself with nowhere to stay and panicking.
“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to reach out to my family and say, ‘your 22-year-old son in Australia is homeless’.
“I just reached out to a few friends, and I was just staying on a sofa in a little garage for two weeks until I got myself back on my feet.
“It was a scary time. It’s one thing not having anywhere to go to, but especially being on the other side of the world.
“I was getting A$1 packets of pasta and tuna cans, and I was living off that. When I went to my friend’s, a girl called Amira, she let me stay in her house for two weeks, staying on her sofa.
“I rocked up with a bag of A$1 packets of pasta and tins of tuna, and she was laughing at me. I was like, ‘I didn’t know what to do’. I’m not a picky eater anymore.”
In a testament to his fighting spirit, Rennie battled through to the other side, and on Friday night, the future star will attempt to make it all worthwhile when he climbs through the ropes for a bout destined to excite.