The countdown is on — it’s just five days until I have the chance to fulfil my dream by challenging Charles Martin for the IBF world heavyweight title on Saturday night.
When my promoter Eddie Hearn called me up and said: “Do you want to fight Charles Martin for the world title?” I just said: “Let’s roll.”
A lot of people have suggested such a fight might be too soon for me, that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew but right now my knuckles are itchy and I just want to get in the ring at the O2 and show the world what I can do.
Eddie said that “let’s roll” has two meanings, not just let’s get to work but also let’s roll the dice and gamble. However, I don’t really see it that way, opportunity knocks and you have to open the door. I have trained and prepared correctly and am ready for what lies ahead.
Eddie and the team were talking after I beat Dillian Whyte last December about who we can fight. I’m holding the British and Commonwealth belts and have got good ranking across the governing bodies so I wasn’t short of options.
We spoke to some good names, which I’ll keep to myself for now but they wanted warm-up fights first, and then, here comes Charles.
We sit down and think: “Okay Mr IBF is calling me out — a world champion is calling out the British champion — cool.” The negotiations were pretty simple. We’re easy people to work with and I’m glad they were because, within two weeks, the fight was made.
Normally you have to work your way up but Charles called me out and what an opportunity this is.
I’ve got the heavyweight champion of the world saying he wants to travel to my backyard to fight me. I’m going to bring him to the lion’s den; he’s coming over to the O2, a world-class venue that I am making my fortress.
My last three fights have been there and I’ve won them all. When I box at the O2 it is electric and there will be an amazing atmosphere. It’ll be interesting to see how Charles handles it and what a night it will be if I can lift that belt at the end.
Tonight is the first media work for the fight with a public work-out at the home of British boxing, York Hall in Bethnal Green from 6pm. Charles and I will be there along with some top fighters on display like world champion Lee Selby and the ever-popular George Groves, and it’s the first look boxing fans will get at Conor Benn.
The son of British legend Nigel, the ‘Dark Destroyer’ makes his debut on Saturday night and, as he trains alongside me in Essex, I can tell you he’s a serious talent.
Plus I can’t wait to see Nigel tonight and throughout the week, he’s such a hero to so many British fighters. It’s a nice way to kick-off the fight week build-up and great to be doing it at York Hall, I boxed there early in my career and loved it! I hope lots of you come down and see us in action.
I might have a look at my opponent at the work-out, I might not — you don’t want to get involved too early in the week, there’s plenty of time to go face-to-face at the press conference and weigh-in.
I believe that if I perform to the best of my ability and stick to the game plan we have worked on tirelessly for months, by the weekend I will become heavyweight champion of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment