MAFS' Jackson responds to surprising detail in boxing match: 'Worried'

After months of rigorous training, Married At First Sight grooms Jackson Lonie and Sam Carraro will face off in a highly-anticipated celebrity boxing match this weekend.

The Team Ellis event has been cheekily titled ‘Fight At First Sight’ and will also see fellow reality TV stars and rivals Brent Vitiello and Daniel Holmes going head to head in the ring.

Chatting exclusively with Yahoo Lifestyle ahead of the match, which will be available for fans to stream online on October 15, Jackson says he’s feeling a mix of emotions.

“I'm excited, I'm nervous, it's all happening,” he shares.

“There's definitely pressure and I’m definitely nervous. Like, it’s a fight. I mean, I'm going in there to punch somebody else's head in and yeah, you get nervous because he's going in there to do the exact same thing. It’s a nerve-wracking thing.”

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The 31-year-old adds that he’s been training “ridiculously hard” for the fight, visiting the gym twice a day for five days a week over the past few months.

“I’m in probably the best shape I've ever been in in my life, and that's including when I was competing for bodybuilding,” he continues. “I'm ready and I'm excited.”

‘I’m fighting for that’

While he admits boxing is something he’s wanted to do for a long time and he’s keen to test his “manhood” and push himself to his limits, Jackson says that the main reason he signed on to do it was to raise money for charity.

He recently partnered with Coast Shelter, a community housing operator providing accommodation for people who are homeless or experiencing domestic and family violence on the Central Coast, which experiences some of the highest rates of domestic violence in New South Wales.

Jackson, who was very open about his own family’s experience with domestic violence on this year’s season of MAFS, will be donating his portion of the event’s ticket sales to Coast Shelter “to give back to the community” and raise awareness.

“I want to give that money to a good cause and I thought, what better cause than something that I've been through and something that really resonates with me,” he explains.

“It's kind of hard because it's [a charity against] domestic violence and it's a boxing match. When speaking to Coast Shelter, they were a bit worried about that which is completely understandable, but they said, ‘Look, you're fighting for awareness of this which is amazing, so we do want to back you and we'd love for you to help us out’. So that's what I'm doing for and I’m fighting for that.”

‘I’m humble until I rumble’

Speaking about his relationship with his competitor Sam, who appeared on last year’s season of MAFS, Jackson reveals that they hardly know each.

“I don't really know Sam from a bar of soap, so I'm going there just to be the best version of me and hopefully it takes home the chocolates at the end of the day,” he says.

“We're both doing something to be proud of ourselves and to benefit ourselves, like in the way of getting in there to test yourself and your ability. So in my eyes, he's got my respect there because it's a very tough thing to go through all that training and get in the ring, so I don’t feel the need to talk smack. At our press conference, he decided to go that kind of route, and that’s fine, that’s on him, but I’m humble until I rumble.

He went on to reveal that he was originally meant to fight another reality TV star, but he pulled out because he didn’t think it would be fair.

“I was set up to fight with somebody else and then I found out his height and his weight and I was like, I’m just going be a bully,” he laughs.

“I think he was only 5’4” or 5’6” or something and 70kg, and I'm sitting about 95kg. I just kind of felt bad like I’d be bullying the kid. So Team Ellis gave me a few names of who else I could potentially fight and Sam was kind of the closest to my weight and height, it was the most even fight.”

Fans can live stream Jackson’s boxing match online on October 15 here.

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