Gunnar "The Stunna" Jackson's dream of fighting for the world title will be a major step closer if he gets the verdict in Hamilton tomorrow night.
The 28-year-old Tauranga boxer defends his WBO Oriental middleweight title against Australian Kurt Bahram at the Hamilton YMCA.
A win should move him up to 11th or 12th in the WBO middleweight world rankings and closer to his goal of cracking the top 10.
"I am really excited about it and getting the big W," Jackson said. "It is definitely pushing me to win this fight to get closer to that top-10 ranking and a chance of hitting that dream."
Tomorrow's bout, originally scheduled for mid-October, was delayed due to scheduling changes.
"I have been raring to go for the past month so it has been really frustrating," Jackson said. "But it is the nature of our sport. You prepare to fight on a certain day and then it doesn't come off and you have to wait a little bit longer.
"I have been keeping up the sparring and hand pads ... and I am ready to go for Saturday night."
Bahram is two years older than Jackson and three inches (7.6cm) taller, with a three-inch reach advantage. Jackson has worked hard at training to counter that.
"We have been doing a lot of sparring with 6 foot 4 (1.93m) guys so have been preparing for his height and his reach," Jackson said. "That won't be a problem come Saturday night. I have some inside information that he does the basics real well and stands in front of you. He ain't going to change from what his style is."
Three of Bahram's four losses came from knock-outs.
"That is not very good and it goes to show he hasn't got a good chin. We can work my power on him and hit him with some flush punches there and he will definitely go down."
Jackson's confidence levels have increased after he went the distance against former three-time world champion Anthony Mundine on just seven days' notice this year.
"I know I can match it with guys of his calibre. I'd always wanted to fight Mundine, but didn't expect it to happen so soon. That really helped me improve and I learned a lot from that fight.
"I know now I can go hard for 10 rounds with these other guys I am going to fight in the future."