Larkin has never been out of his laid-back mode in fight week. At least, not until the two explosive, stand up welterweights were matched for the Bellator 183 event here at the SAP Center for Saturday night, a couple of months ago.

Daley did his thing, upped the ante, and Larkin bit. So much so, that Larkin was unmoved to talk about Daley last week on media calls.

Not so this week, though, in which Larkin has been out of character. Seriously irritated by Daley, whose histrionics are well-known to MMA fans - and opponents - the 170lb fighter has a fire within him.

"There'll be no handshake afterwards," Larkin told me, and the American, with a 61 per cent knock out ratio in his fights, was honest enough to admit he is unsure how it will affect him on fight night: for better or worse. Tried and trusted territory for Daley; new frontier for Larkin.