AKONNE WANLISS gave up a career in stripping and turned down a Netflix dating show to chase his dream of MMA supremacy.
Wanliss is signed to European promotion Oktagon MMA and has a record of 6-2 in the cage, having started the sport aged 23.
But for the last decade, he also toured the continent as a male stripper before giving it up this year to focus solely on MMA.
Wanliss started martial arts as a schoolboy but it was only at 21 that he was temped back to kickboxing.
One message from his former sensei after a night out on the town would ultimately change the Birmingham boy's life forever.
Wanliss told SunSport: “It was a random text, out of the blue, I hadn’t spoke to him for years since I was like 15 or 16.
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“He text me saying, ‘When you coming back to sparring, p***y?’ I was thinking, when I was a boy you could bully me, but I’m a man now.
“I thought, “I’m coming tomorrow.’”
Wanliss turned up hungover and admitted to taking a pasting upon his return to the gym – but it kickstarted his fight journey.
He said: “What I was doing the night before, chasing women, that’s all a load of b*****s, a load of s***.
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"I could actually build something with my life here. I had no direction, nothing that really drew any passion but that day, I just decided I want to be a fighter.”
Wanliss – who trains with UFC champion Leon Edwards – would go on to win three amateur kickboxing titles but his attention soon turned to MMA.
At the time, he was working as a PT until an old friend from his breakdancing days offered him another career route.
Wanliss, 30, revealed: “He said, ‘Do you want to come to a Ladies Night and earn £50 to stand there topless?’
"Butler in the Buff kind of vibe but with your trousers on. And I was like, ‘F*** yeah, let’s do this.’ I went there, I absolutely loved it.”
From there, Wanliss would travel the world as a male stripper until he stopped this year to put all his efforts into being a fighter.
He said: “I just literally retired from stripping this year.
"Man, ten years I’ve been all of the world, I’d consider myself as one of the best strippers in Europe.
“It’s been a mad ride and I’m going to write a book about it one day. But, I quit to focus on MMA because this is my passion.
“This is what I want to achieve with my life, nothing wrong with the stripping but my passion lies over here. That was just a job.”
Wanliss continues to model and even has his own OnlyFans account but he insisted nothing compares to being a professional fighter.
He said: “I could have £1million in my back pocket right now – and eventually I will do – and I’d still fight.
“I’d still turn up to the gym and train and that would lead to me still wanting to compete because I’m a very competitive person.
“It’s the competitive drive and I love the process of preparing for a fight, taking a puzzle which is in the shape of another person and trying to defeat that.
“There’s no money in the world that can buy that. Yeah, OnlyFans is great and it makes money, stripping is great and it makes money but my passion is as a martial artist.”
Wanliss – who is going out with social media influencer Daniella Hemsley – was approached to feature on the debut of Netflix's Too Hot to Handle.
But he turned it down to focus on his first fight with Bellator in 2019 and has no regrets doing so.
Wanliss said: "They even said they’d pay me £20,000 to cover a loss of earnings.
“The show came on and I thought, ‘Wow, that could have changed my life.’
“But, at the same time I have no regrets and happy I chose to make my debut with Bellator and progress as an athlete and mixed martial artist.
“I can sleep well at night whereas if it was the other way around, maybe I’d have a lot of money and stuff but maybe I wouldn't even be fighting any more.”
Wanliss makes his MMA return on Saturday night in Prague against Georgia's Giorgi Gogotchuri on Oktagon 45.
And the British prospect wants to go down as a legend in the sport having made a name for himself outside of it.
He said: “My biggest goal is to be pound-for-pound No1 in MMA.
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"I want to leave my career the best that I can be and I don’t see anything less than No1.
“Whatever I’ve got to do. Right now my main focus is the Oktagon title and each fight I’ll be climbing and climbing.”
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