You're on the brink of chasing a world title and ensconced in an intense training regime to be the fittest you've ever been to survive the brutality of the MMA - so with that constant pressure, what do you do to unwind?
For Otahuhu-born, Aussie-raised MMA middleweight star Robert 'The Reaper' Whittaker, that's a no-brainer - you lock yourself away from your family.
Not to maintain your focus and keep your eye on the prize, but to spend a couple of hours in the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls Online.
For Whittaker though, it's not a distraction. If anything his MMA career is more a distraction from his first passion - gaming.
"Gaming has been literally a fundamental part of who I am since I was old enough to hold a controller," the 32-year-old told Newshub.
"The first game console I remember playing would have to be the Sega Mega Drive. My dad was into it at the time and I remember jamming Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Ghosts'n'Ghouls and all that.
"It literally imprinted on me just how I would live the rest of my life at that point. I guess for me, I loved the fantasy, magic, dragons, the combat and the superpowers. I just haven't looked back since."
Despite Whittaker's MMA career, beat'em up games weren't his main vice when he was younger.
"It's a funny thing - I was never really into the fighting games so much. I dabbled in a lot of games, but I just like building these characters that I look up to almost, you know, that I wish I could be. My role models and my driving force were the characters that I had built in these games."
While Whittaker trains and mentally readies himself for his upcoming fight against Paolo Costa at UFC 284 in February 2023, he says gaming is an essential part of his training because of the impact it has on his mental health.
"The creation of the characters and going on these journeys is the easiest method of escaping. It's just like instant dopamine - I find gaming for me is just a really good meditation," he said.
"I go to the gym and I'm slogging away. I'll go out in the fights and you know, fight week is stressful. There's a diet, I'm hungry and I'm training, I am exhausted 24-7. But I know I can just come in here and I can sit down, work on a game and I can progress my character and just unwind. Nothing exists other than what's going on in the game at that time."
Whittaker's persistence with fantasy games like Skyrim and his social media posts about them have paid off.
Not only is he an ambassador for Bethesda Games which develops and publishes the franchise, but was added as a fully-voiced companion mod to Skyrim in 2021 - a moment he says brought him and his father closer together.
"He knows how important that was to me to have a character in my favourite game of all time. With that guy, I finally made it. And yeah, it was just a great feeling."
Whittaker knows his passion is infectious. Not only does he now attend Bethesda-run events, but he'll spend all the spare time he has extolling the virtues of online gaming to anyone who'll listen.
"My best friends and my main friends are those that I speak to online. I don't have the time to go out. So to be able to just jump online - we all have our groups linked up in Discord and we can always just catch up online," he said.
"You know some of my best friends are guys I've never met in real life!"
Whittaker knows his young family is watching his gaming with eager eyes as well. He has three sons and a young daughter, all of whom are catching up with him on their screen time.
"They love their games. Absolutely love games. You can leave them on it literally for days. They will not stop," he said.
"We have to monitor them quite, quite heavily because they just love it. Jack and John, they're my two eldest and they will not put it down. They love all types of games and it's hard trying to keep them playing PG-rated games.
"My boys - boys will be boys. I thought they could play Skyrim, like it's pretty PG, a lot of it's all good.
"Within two seconds he's trying to kill everyone in the game - within seconds!"
Robert Whittaker is due to take on Paolo Costa at UFC 284 on Sunday February 12.
