That fighter is IBF cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis, who defends his IBF cruiserweight title in Broadbeach Australia against undefeated Australian Jai Opetaia on ESPN+ early Saturday morning.
Briedis won the second of the two cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series and lost in the first WBSS by majority decision to Oleksandr Usyk in what is the closest fight of Usyk's career to this day.
Briedis knocked out Artur Mann in October in his last fight and is hoping to fight WBO champion Lawrence Okolie in his next outing should he get by the undefeated former Olympian Opetaia, who has an excellent amateur background but has defeated no one of note to reach his mandatory contender status.
It'll be a hometown crowd for Opetaia but Briedis is used to fighting on the road as Australia will be the seventh different country that the Latvian has boxed in.
Still, Briedis is thirty-seven, and sometimes as fighters age, they can lose their skills all at once and unexpectedly.
Later in the day, another card on ESPN+ from with two fights of interest.
In the main event, British Commonwealth junior featherweight champion Jason Cunningham defends his title against former IBF junior bantamweight and WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete as Tete attempts a comeback from his November 2019 knockout title loss to John Riel Casimero.
Tete has fought only one round since losing to Casimero but a win over the veteran Cunningham and he would likely jump into title contention at 122 pounds.
Cunningham lacks power with only seven knockouts among his thirty-one wins and Tete's weakness has been his chin, so the question may come down to this- Can Cunningham hurt Tete?
The co-feature will be a ten-rounder between heavyweights Joe Joyce and Christian Hammer.
Joyce, who is the WBO number one contender after his knockout win over Daniel DuBois, was originally rumored to face former WBO champion Joseph Parker before Parker changed promoters and the fight fell through.
Hammer has fought many of the top heavyweights, usually losing, to the likes of Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, and Luis Ortiz but almost always goes rounds (lasted the distance with Povetkin, Ortiz, and undefeated prospect Frank Sanchez and lasted eight rounds with Fury) so if Joyce could score an early knockout, it would be an impressive win for Joyce.
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