On a good day, the 30 mile drive between Barnsley and Oldham takes around hour.

For our American readers, that may sound like little more than a quick trip to the store but for British sports fans, that constitutes a real 'away day' and involves mini buses and a full day out.

Over the course of 18 months, Barnsley’s Callum Simpson made the trip across the Woodhead Pass, which separates the northern towns, three times.

Simpson’s manager, Kevin Maree, uses Oldham’s leisure centre as something of a proving ground for his young fighters and likes them to move through the ranks and headline there before letting them loose on television.

Each time Simpson boxed there, more fans joined him on the journey. Each time, he got better.

Since graduating from the small hall scene, Simpson has won the British and Commonwealth super middleweight titles and proven himself to be one of the country's biggest ticket sellers.

Last summer, the unbeaten 28 year-old returned home and attracted 7,000 fans to Oakwell Stadium for his British and Commonwealth super middleweight title fight with Zak Chelli.

On Saturday night, Simpson (17-0, 12 KOs) returns to the stadium for his vacant European super middleweight title fight with Italian southpaw, Ivan Zucco (21-0 18 KOs). This time, around 15,000 fans are expected.

Oakwell may not be far from Oldham Leisure Centre distance wise but it is a long, long way away in boxing terms.

“I doesn't seem long ago at all that I was there. It does seem pretty recent and the reality is that I always go,” Simpson told The Ring.

“I'm there every other month supporting Kevin Maree’s local boxers. I’ve got my trainer's license. I'm in the corner as the spit bucket man and water boy. I'm there, so it only seems like yesterday.

“It’s got very big, very quick and now he [Zucco] is in the same spot that I was in eight months ago when I fought Zak Chelli. One minute you're fighting on small hall shows and in leisure centres, the next minute you're in arenas. The next minute you're in stadiums. It’s pretty crazy. It moves fast.”

Maree is an expert at guiding fighters to title level and did everything in his power to make sure that Simpson was prepared professionally for his step up from the small halls but it is impossible to know how a fighter will react when the time comes for them to perform in front of television cameras.

“The biggest thing about Callum's mindset that hit me - and I've seen so many different things, so many fighters and different personalities - came when we were just due to go out for his first time boxing on Sky Sports, so a huge fight for him,” Maree told The Ring.

“We’re in the changing room and I was putting the tape on his glove. We’re close to then going out and the tape overlaps at the end of his glove. I said, 'Just pass me some scissors, I want to trim that up'.

"He said, 'No, leave it' and I said, 'No, I'm just going to tidy it up, pass me the scissors'.

“He says, 'No, no, no. Leave it' and I thought, 'Ok, he really means this' and at this stage, I'm not going to upset him.”

“In the changing rooms afterwards, I was taking his gloves off and it just popped into my head. I said, 'What was going on with the glove before?' and he said, 'I can't control it and it wasn’t perfect so I wanted you to leave it so I could get over it. If something happens in the ring that's not perfect, I've got to get over it so when that glove tape went wrong and it didn't look nice and I didn't like it, it was like, 'Leave it, let's get past it'.”

That night, Simpson blew Celso Neves away in three rounds and his progress over the following 17 months persuaded Boxxer to take their show to Barnsley. The 7,000 available tickets for his fight with Chelli were snapped up within minutes of them going on open sale.

Not one member of Simpson’s team had a single doubt over how he would handle the pressure of having an entire event built around him and he justified their faith by imposing himself on the awkward Londoner from the opening bell.

This weekend, there will be more than double the number of fans inside Oakwell and whilst Simpson knows exactly what to expect and how to remain composed, it remains to be seen how Zucco will handle the situation.

“Oh, it is definitely a character test ,” Simpson laughed. “You don't know until you're in that position.

“You can think, “Oh, it's not going to affect me” or you might well be nervous but until you walk out and there's thousands of people shouting your name like I had, you just don't know.

“This time, it's going to be up to 15,000 so we'll see. I'm expecting him to take it well. I’m going to try and assume that he's going to get in there as the best version of himself and that the big crowd will spur him on.

“I don't ever want to think that an opponent's going to be nervous or that they're not going to be mentally right. I always expect my opponent to come in there 100% mentally and physically.”

Simpson has already built the type of fanbase that gives him control over his own career and power in negotiations but translating his local popularity onto the national stage is a big step that only a handful of fighters are capable of making.

There are signs that he could do it.

Simpson seems to be a ringside staple at almost every major fight and his growing profile has made him a regular pundit across the Sky Sports platform. Adding the European belt to his collection will put him right in contention for major fights.

As Simpson said, he has already made the leap from leisure centres to arenas and from arenas to stadiums and he is beginning to notice his appeal widening outside of his local area.

“Obviously I’m Barnsley born and bred and my local support is very important to me but it's just growing naturally and I know that as it does grow, nationally it's going to grow as well,” he said.

“No matter where I fight, up and down country they're going to be following and supporting me.

“At first it was just like Barnsley and then South Yorkshire. Now, there's people from Portsmouth, Essex, Surrey, Wales, Ireland and Scotland ordering tickets from me. People are even coming from Tenerife and from Dubai to come and support me.

“It’s crazy.”