John Ryder explained why he believes he deserves his fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Ryder is the unfancied fighter of the two and travels to Mexico as the WBO mandatory at super middleweight.
He provides a chance for Canelo to demonstrate his fitness after hand surgery and - the Mexican will hope - the chance to show that he is back to his best after 2022’s defeat to Dmitry Bivol and his routine win over Gennadiy Golovkin.
Ryder believes that he will earn the respect of Canelo’s countrymen once the fight is done.
"I might walk to the ring to boos but I'm sure once the fight is over, I'll leave to cheers," Ryder said to Sky Sports.
"I'm going to put it all on the line and I'm sure they'll appreciate that."
Ryder explained how long he has been waiting for a chance, trying to force the opportunity during the Covid pandemic.
"It felt like I was following him around the world for a couple of years during Covid, boxing on cards in and around times he was due to fight just in case anyone got taken ill," he said.
"I've took my knocks and I'm there now. I'm fully deserving of this shot, I'm not getting it by opportunity or by default, I have built my way back up and earned my position.
"Now I feel I really have the opportunity and we're here for a reason."
He continued: "There's been a few dark days but we always knew the sun would shine the next day and kept the faith, kept working hard and we've earned our shot now and we're where we always truly believed we'd get to, so I'm thankful to myself, believing in myself and obviously the team around me for believing in me and sticking with me and just really having that bit in us to go for it.
"I don't want to go in there, beat him and everyone says, 'well, he wasn't the Canelo of old'.
"I want him to be the best version of him.
"I want to go in there and beat the man, to be the man."