"I just dedicated so much to this, so it really means a lot. If I'd fallen at the first hurdle that would have been devastating."
The words of Welsh fighter Stephanie Evans reflect on the first step she took to realise her mixed martial arts dreams with a first-round knockout victory at the Samurai Fighting Championship 1 event in Ebbw Vale in October.
That win over Ruby Mesu earned the 30-year-old a three-fight deal with the Professional Fighters League (PFL) and vindicated her decision to back herself in her career break from her job as a firefighter.
"The fire station is a bit of an unforgiving place - I'd have had a bit of banter for the next couple of years I think [had I not won that fight]," said Evans.
It was not an easy decision for the Port Talbot fighter to make. Her MMA ambitions meant moving her home away from her family to the "middle of nowhere in the valleys", while her sabbatical from work is an unpaid one.
Choosing to leave the comfort of her family bubble - living just six doors up from her father - to move to Abertillery and train full-time at Shore Mixed Martial Arts appears to be paying off for Evans.
It is a gym which has produced stars such as Jack Marshman, Brett Johns, Jack Shore and Oban Elliott, and can be seen as the MMA factory of south Wales - the perfect breeding ground for Evans' ambitions.
Her pro career had not got off to the ideal start, as she was beaten by second-round stoppage in August 2022 by Jasmine Favero.
"I think I wasn't fully committed for my pro debut, I hadn't put my whole self into it," Evans told OceanNewsUK.
"My training wasn't consistent, I was doing shift work and I wasn't up here [in the gym] as much as I should have been.
"I wasn't training as consistently as I should have been and it wasn't really the weight class I should have been fighting in.
"I think coming off that loss, I was a bit sad for a while, I did a bit of self-reflection and realised if I want to do this, I've really got to do it.
"These other girls don't have jobs or anything other than fighting, that's what I needed to do as well."
The team in the gym have taken Evans under their wing, where she's affectionately known as 'Steve'.
"I was the only woman here for a really long time, maybe two years until Lauren Woolf came. I'd say it's hard but it's all I've ever known," Evans added.
With 10 years of playing rugby for Ospreys under her belt, Evans is undaunted by grappling with the men.
"I think I started jiu-jitsu to develop my rugby game and I just liked it more," she recalled.
Once stepping away from rugby, she continued jiu-jitsu and her love for MMA progressed from there.
Evans has praised the support from her family, including a very close relationship with her father, but says they are not quite brave enough to watch her fights live.
"He [dad] will not come and watch me fight, but once I've won he wants to watch it," she said.
"He's never come to watch me fight. I don't think he ever will, not even for a title fight.
"He always says, 'I've no doubt you'll win, but you might get beaten up in the process and I don't want front-row seats for that'.
"It's understandable, I'm still his little girl."
Even if she fulfils the ultimate goal of winning PFL's global $1m (£790,000) tournament in the United States, Evans insists she would not give up her firefighting job.
"I say even if I won it twice, I'd still come back," she said.
"It's the best job in the world being a firefighter, being with my friends all day, you see them for half the year, 48 hours a week and they become your family.
"It's like a home from home, a really great job. It's different every day and I think I'd be a bit lost without it."
