Dmitriy Salita believes he is destined to win the world title against Amir Khan on Saturday night, live on Sky Box Office.
The Ukrainian-born New Yorker has been around boxing all his life and believes his background could be the key to victory in Newcastle.
The 27-year-old, who made his debut more than eight years ago, insists he has the experience to overcome the raw talent of the current WBA light-welterweight champion.
"I've been around great boxers since I was a little kid, I always knew this moment would come," he said at Thursday's press conference. "I've worked very hard to be number one contender, for my opportunity.
"I was supposed to fight Andriy Kotelnik a few times before, but he (Khan) got the opportunity and I feel that the beautiful WBA belt belongs to me.
"I have worked very hard, trained in isolation, obviously this time it was more intense, and longer - all the hard work is going to pay off.
"I did 100-120 rounds sparring. I trained 12 weeks for this fight, the first four in New York and then we moved camp to the Pocono's Mountains.
"I boxed with some bigger guys, some fast guys, and got a really good mix in."
Matured
Salita also believes he has a natural size and weight advantage over Khan, who will be having just his second fight at 140lbs since moving up from lightweight.
"He's never really fought a true junior welterweight. Before I got the fight there was talk of him fighting Erik Morales and I guess the plan was for him to grow into the weight.
"I've been a junior-welterwight since I was 17 years old and I just feel over the last few months I've matured into my manpower physically and mentally and Saturday night we'll see that."
That said, Salita has done most of his boxing at a lower level than Khan and admits Saturday's showdown represents the biggest test of his career.
"There is no doubt that Amir is the best fighter that I've fought. I've gone into training camp knowing that, and obviously it would be foolish of me not to think that way," he said.
"I have watched a few of Amir's fights, I've seen some of th changes he's made with Freddie, but we have a gameplan and come Saturday night I'll let my fists do the talking."
Source: skysports.com
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