Belfast’s Eamonn Magee is ready to give highly-rated Ricky Hatton the fight of his life when the pair clash in their big domestic light-welterweight showdown at the MEN Arena tonight.
Manchester's Hatton puts his WBU belt on the line against the gritty 30-year-old from Northern Ireland.
Magee starts as the underdog but insists he has a real chance of taking a road which promoter Frank Warren believes will lead Hatton to big fights in the United States.
Magee said: "We have not under-estimated Ricky at all. We know he has done everything that has been asked of him and that he is a brave kid and a good kid.
"But I am bringing around 1,000 fans with me across the Irish Sea and I am going to win. I only wish this fight had happened at Maine Road, then I could have beaten up Hatton in front of 40,000 people.
"I am 110 per cent ready for this and I know that this is my time."
Magee is so intent on getting the job done with the minimum of fuss he refused to pose for photographers in a traditional head-to-head fashion with Hatton at yesterday's weigh-in.
He has every right to feel confident having stopped Jon Thaxton in the sixth round of his last fight. Thaxton gave Hatton trouble on his way to a points defeat.
Hatton's career, which has brought him 28 successive wins and marked him out as British boxing's superstar of the future, was temporarily hampered two years ago by a series of bad cuts.
He has not been cut for six fights but Magee's stylish approach and slashing jabs could worry the champion again.
Hatton said: "Eamonn is a more than worthy challenger and I can't afford to come unstuck against him. I want to become the undisputed welterweight champion of the world."
The big fights should come for Hatton but only after he has been pushed to the limit by Magee. He will not have it all his own way before he wraps up what ought to be a good points win.