If you ever need proof that bad boys really can turn their lives around, look no further than Jimi Manuwa.

The 31-year-old spent three years in jail when he was in his teenage years for commercial burglary and was passed from school to school ending in specialist centres for troublesome children.

But that is all in the past for the Thornton Heath resident who is now the undefeated British mixed martial arts light-heavyweight champion and last month opened up a new MMA gym in central Croydon, with the intention of stopping today’s teenagers from following the same path he did.

“I want to get kids into the gym before they make the mistakes I made,” said Manuwa.

“I was a bit of a naughty boy when I was young and I went to prison.

“I was hanging around with some people trying to make money and we used to steal computers and cars and stuff like that.

“But that is all in the past now and all I want to do at the gym is give the knowledge I have got down to younger people and help them.

“That is my aim, to get the kids off the street.

“Everyone likes to fight and think they are tough and this is the perfect way to get them off the street and focus that, as you can make a career out of this.

“A lot of people are natural fighters and they don’t even know it, like me.

“I didn’t know until I got into this at the age of 28 and I wish I could have come into the sport earlier than I did.”

The Lion’s Pride MMA gym, in Tamworth Place, is the first in the UK to be sponsored by Throwdown, the manufacturers of the best UFC gyms in America and is open to both men and women.

It boasts a 24 ft competition standard MMA cage, a 1,000 sq ft matting area and coaches in Brazilian Jiu jitsu, boxing, Thai boxing and martial arts.

Manuwa, nicknamed The Poster Boy, won his British title in only his fifth fight and has so far defended it four times.

“For three years I have been training in mixed martial arts and won the title after a year-and-a-half in the sport and each defence I have won in the first round,” he said.

“I was going to other gyms in Orpington and Epsom and all around for boxing and wrestling, nothing was in the same place.

“When a friend of mine showed me the space behind his gym, it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down."

Visit lionspridemma.co.uk