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Micallef announced his arrival onto the scene with a stunning win over Joesph Luciano at Hex FS 28 in November, an upset that took his professional record to 5-0.  

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Perth-based Bates admitted he was surprised by that result, but he’s not making the mistake of underestimating his young opponent again when they meet in the cage at Melbourne Pavillion on Saturday.

“I didn’t even give him a chance with that Luciano fight,” Bates said. “Probably more than most. I’ve seen his record and I looked at the guys that he fought and I thought to myself ‘this is a gimme fight for Luciano. They’re feeding him some young up-and-comer to add to his record,' but I watched the fight and I was absolutely shocked, but that’s what happens.

“There’s a new young breed of athletes coming out and just because they’re not well known, it doesn’t mean they’re not at the pinnacle of the sport.

“I didn’t give him a sniff in that fight. I was thinking 'I’m going to fight Luciano coming very soon and looks like I’ll be fighting Jono now'.”

Bates’s surprise at the nature of Micallef’s win shouldn’t be taken as disrespect. In fact, the 37 year-old said he was impressed by Micallef, a fighter 13 years his junior.

“I like his fighting style. I like the lad. He’s a left-hander, he’s a good southpaw striker, who’s got a lot of dangerous weapons, so the thing about fighting southpaw, me being orthodox, my power side is my right side. His power side is his left side and he throws it a lot and I throw mine a lot," Bates said.

“So it’s a guaranteed fireworks kind of night. I’ve said this before and I’ve been right 99 percent of the time, it’s a guaranteed ‘someone’s getting knocked out’ type of fight. 

“I’ve said this in the past and It’s gone against me. I’ve said it in the past and it’s gone for me, so from where I come from and where I’ve trained, you kind of live by the sword and die by the sword so one of us is going to be… you’re either dragged off by the referee or you’re stiff on the floor.”

Nicknamed the ‘Jamaican Warrior’ by a former trainer, Bates, who's background is half Jamaican, half Irish, anticipated a tactical battle punctuated by moments of raw power between two men not afraid to take the fight on.  

“I’ve always had amazing cardio, I’ve never ever slowed down in fight,” he said. “I always pick it up in pace, every fight I’ve ever had and… I believe, from looking at him, I’ll be carrying a little bit more power than Jono, so it’s all a case of delivering that power, delivering your strengths.

“You’ve got two power strikers, he’s got good wrestling, I’ve got good wrestling. Both kind of defensive wrestling.

“I would call Jon a sharp shooter, he’s a very good hands, good kick. He’s a sharpshooter, he’s not really wasting shots.

“I think he’ll come forward, which a lot of my opponents in the last couple of years they haven’t done as much, so I think he’ll come forward with venom, I’ll come forward with venom and I think we’re going to meet in the middle and see what happens.”

A victory over Micallef would put Bates one step closer to his goal of fighting in the UFC and the culmination of a journey that started 13 years ago, when the British-raised fighter arrived in Australia for a holiday.

Over the decade since, Bates has seen the sport explode in both popularity and professionalism.

“When I first got here the cage was banned in Western Australia so I fought three or maybe four of my professional fights in a ring,” he reflected. “Since I’ve been here it’s advanced so much. But early on, it was a bit of the wild west having Muay Thai fight nights with MMA fights thrown into it.  

“I’ve seen the sport grow so much over the last eight years in Australia. Now it’s basically the feeding company, with Hex and Eternal, straight to the UFC, so it’s incredible how much it’s grown.”