Will Lerena live up to his words?

IT WAS only a few months ago when Kevin Lerena fought his second fight as a heavyweight, following a pretty successful career in the cruiserweight division.

No sooner had he convincingly won that bout against the Polish man-mountain that is Mariusz Wach, than he was declaring himself ready to challenge for a world title.

It sounded a little presumptuous. Surely, Lerena needed to work his way up the ranks, prove himself via a few more fights before he could challenge for the world title?

Lerena, though, had been a world champion in the cruiserweight division and he wanted the big one.

He saw no reason to wait, although he did acknowledge that he needed a few more fights before he could get into the ring with the likes of Tyson Fury.

But want to be a heavyweight word champion, he did.

After all it is a dream he had nursed for years, Lerena being inspired by watching a heavyweight championship fight.

“Watching 90000 people packed in that arena when (Anthony) Joshua fought (Vitali) Klitschko, wow man ... that was something else. That was an inspiration.

“I looked at those guys and believed I could fight here. And I just found myself yearning for that kind of experience. I wanted to be involved in something that grand,” Lerena said.

They say if you can dream it, you can live it. And that is exactly what is going to happen for Lerena his weekend.

He is going to be involved in something grand – a world heavyweight title bout.

His bout with may not be the main fight on the bill that will see Fury slug it out with Derrek Chisora in defence of his WBC heavyweight title.

But it is also a “world title fight”, Lerena challenging Dubois for his WBA regular heavyweight title.

The boxing purists will not be making too much of it, given it is not a “real” title.

But for Lerena it is a step in the right direction given that he will, for one, be realising his dream of fighting in an arena packed to the rafters. Promoter Frank Warren has claimed that there will be no less than 50000 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow night, though reports have suggested that English fans have no interest in seeing the third instalment of a Fury versus Chisora fight, given that the former won the previous two clashes convincingly.

Not that Lerena will be bothered by that, not when he is slowly making his way towards his dream of becoming a world champion.

But to get there he has to overcome the talented Dubois, who – like him – has only been beaten once.

That the duo see this fight as an opportunity to catapult themselves into the big league makes for a thrilling clash.

The 25-year-old Dubois boasts an impressive record of 17 knockouts from his 18 victories.

Lerena, though, is a skilled fighter who can take on all comers, and shortly after he had beaten Wach, he spoke confidently about his ability to avoid being hit while dishing out punishment to his adversaries.

Will he live up to his words tomorrow?