Tony Bellew believes that Conor Benn has the potential to become a world champion but needs to be careful of the threat posed by Chris Algieri.
The duo fight in Liverpool on Saturday night in a co-main event with Firuza Sharipova, shown worldwide on DAZN.
Benn has talked up his desire to make 2022 the year he gets a shot at a title, and his promoter Eddie Hearn is keen to first pair him with experienced former world champion Adrien Broner.
Algieri is also a former world champion, and Bellew told the Daily Mail that he would not be an easy opponent.
“Chris Algieri's a really good fighter,” he explained. “I know he's 37 years old, but he's not your average 37-year-old in the lower weight divisions.
“This man is a diligent professional. He's extremely clever, prepares perfectly, he's a nutritionist – he's got everything in his favour. If you look at the shape he's in, he looks like he's 27, not 37. Conor's going in there with someone who will be physically just as good, just with a lot more experience.
“The thing that Conor has in his favour is the explosiveness and the youth on his side. I know I just said Chris looks great, but you can never get it back when it's gone – that explosiveness, that speed, that enthusiasm that comes with youth.
“Conor has all these things in abundance; you'll see it on Saturday night. I expect Conor to jump all over him, but I'm not going to lie, I also expect Chris to still be there after three or four rounds. And if that's the case, it's going to be the toughest fight of Conor's career so far.”
Benn had been making light work of his previous opponent, but Bellew thinks Algieir is likely to prove more durable.
“It was a big, big thing to go out there and blast out Samuel Vargas,” he warned. “If he does the same to Chris Algieri, then wow. That's all I could say, wow.
“Algieri isn't Samuel Vargas. He's a former world champion who's been in there with some really, really good fighters. He's got a standout victory over Ruslan Provodnikov.
“If Conor gets rid of him in any round, that's a big statement performance. Only Spence has done it, and he was the best welterweight in the world bar none at the time. I was labelling Errol Spence as the new Marvin Hagler, he was that good.”
With Benn aged just 25, Bellew believes that the welterweight should take his time to prepare for the very toughest in the division.
“I just don't want Conor to fall into that trap of too much, too soon. There's no rush, especially when he's got youth on his side. There are numerous fights out there that can be made for him, it's just all about timing,” he said.
“You can't put him in the same category as the likes of Terence Crawford or Vergil Ortiz Jr, you just can't," he said. "These guys just have such a vast amount of experience, they're in a different league at the moment.
“But what you can say is that, at the rate he's developing right now, he will be in and among the best welterweights in the world. It's only a matter of time.
“This is a boy who doesn't need to fight, this is a boy who chooses to fight. Believe me that makes him really dangerous. I had to fight, so do 90 per cent of boxers out there. He's there because he wants to be there, he loves being there.
“He's going to go a long, long way. The likes of Boots (Jaron Ennis) and Vergil Ortiz Jr, forget about those guys for now. At this moment in time, you want to be aiming towards the lesser world champions or fringe contenders.
“A couple more fights and you go for [David] Avanesyan. That's a real, real test, it really is. But I do feel after two more fights he'll beat Avanesyan. Two more fights is all he needs. Let's just get through Saturday night first.”