Mark Jeffers must spend every interview waiting for the inevitable questions about Callum SImpson to start.

This weekend, Jeffers (20-0, 7 KOs) fights Louisiana's Sean Hemphill (18-2, 11 KOs) on the undercard of Simpson's European title fight with Ivan Zucco and - once again - the main topic of conversation will be his growing rivalry with the current British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion.

Pigeonholing Jeffers as little more than a future opponent for Simpson is doing the Chorley-based 27-year-old an injustice.

The straight shooting Jeffers is one of the more interesting but neglected characters in British boxing.

The former English super middleweight champion is an extremely talented cricket player. He plays pool and golf to a high standard and was a very promising junior footballer.

He is also a regular at his local 5km park runs. Jeffers doesn't just jog around and break a sweat, having recently attempted to break the 18-minute mark whilst pushing his young son in a pram. He managed it in 17minutes 57 seconds.

In Jeffers' world, that doesn't qualify as a particular unusual challenge.

"My mad challenges have taken a backwards step. They were just taking too much out of me," Jeffers told The Ring.

"I did four marathons in a day, that f——d me up for literally, no word of a lie, five or six weeks and then I found out on the Monday that I was fighting in six weeks.

"I had probably three toenails come off, couldn't walk and then obviously I was getting ready for a fight. So it weren't a great preparation but it's all learning."

Jeffers is now at the stage of his career where he can't afford to enter the ring in anything less than peak condition. When he eventually hangs up his gloves, he will begin seeking out ultra marathon application forms.

"100% I will be doing. It's the mental battle. That's why I enjoy so much of it but they will have to wait till after my boxing now," he said.

"I ran to the Lakes from my house. That's 100km, 62.5 miles. I hadn't done no training - I think my biggest run was maybe five, six miles - and I just thought, "You know what? Saturday morning, I'm going to get up at 4am and run up to the Lakes."

"My mum and dad were at the Lakes so I went and met them. There's not much planning behind these things."

Jeffers would prefer to be challenged in the ring but despite his undefeated record and entertaining style, has found it impossible to snare a big name.

In July 2023, he stepped in on two weeks notice and took the English 168lb title from the awkward Zak Chelli.

The win should have catapulted him onwards. Instead, Chelli was handed an unlikely chance to win the British title against Jack Cullen, took it and then lost the belt to Simpson in his first defence.

Jeffers has boxed only four times since and has yet to be given a major opportunity.

Rather than going through the motions and waiting for a chance, Jeffers realised he needs to make himself impossible to avoid. Over the past 13 months he has dealt with Darren Johnstone, Joshua Quartey and Ricardo Lara in ruthless fashion. Hemphill represents a step up in levels but Jeffers aims to do a similar job on the American this weekend.

Every time Jeffers gets a chance, he is determined to prove a readiness for the next step.

"I think I've shown that recently as well now," he said.

"I'm far past that level. The Chelli fight is two years ago at the start of July and if you actually look at my profile - well, maybe not my profile, but my record - it's probably gone down since the Chelli fight as far as opposition's gone which is obviously not a fault of my own, I've took loads of fights."

Jeffers isn't only making himself available to the Best of British. Over the past few months he has said "Yes" to two of the most dangerous tasks in the super middleweight division.

Late in 2023, he accepted a last minute trip to Marseille and a fight with big-punching former European champion, Kevin Lele Sadjo (24-0, 21 KOs), only for the Frenchman’s team to take a different route.

Earlier this year, Jeffers jumped at the chance to take on Cuba's dangerous unbeaten contender Osleys Iglesias (13-0, 12 KOs) as part of The Ring's third event taking place in New York City on July 12, only for the trail to go cold.

"I've took harder fights than anyone in Britain in my opinion," he said.

"Obviously, they've not come off but that's not been my fault. I took the Sadjo fight on a week's notice, took the Iglesias fight. No-one wants to go near him but I want to test myself, if you want to be the best in the world, you've got to beat these boys so I have no issue with fighting any of them."

We will save the inevitable until last. Given that Jeffers is boxing on Simpson's undercard this weekend it would be impossible not to find out what he thinks of the Barnsley's man European title fight with Italy's hard-hitting Zucco, who could've instead been fighting him.

"Zucco's perfect for him," Jeffers said. "He'll stand there straight in front of him, not got the best of feet. Somebody who's going to beat Simpson, they'll have fast feet and head movement.

"I think that's why they know it's probably not a good idea fighting me."