By Steve Kim

This Saturday night from the Manchester Arena in England, hard-hitting Venezuelan, Ismael Barroso (19-0-2, 18 KO's) challenges Anthony Crolla (30-4-3, 12 KO's) for his WBA lightweight title. 

Barroso's promoter, Greg Cohen, who will soon be leaving for the UK believes he'll be coming home with a champion.

"The great thing about Barroso is every time he fights I know I'm bringing home a winner,' 'he told BoxingScene.com on Sunday evening ."This is going to be a good fight. Anthony Crolla's a real champion, he's a kid I like a lot, I admire him. He could've taken the easy way like a lot of guys have. He could've vacated and fought ( WBO belt-holder) Terry Flanagan for more money rather than fighting Barroso but he's a real champion and he wants to defend his title."

"Unfortunately, he has to run into a killer like Barroso and I don't care who's on the other side of the ring. I think Barroso is the best lightweight in the world and on Saturday night there's going to be one WBA champion and I'm supremely confident it'll be Ismael Barroso by knockout."

Barroso stopped Kevin Mitchell in five rounds to capture the WBA interim title. A victory over Crolla and Barroso wins more than just a title, but a chance to gain real prominence.

Cohen states - "First and foremost, I'm a big proponent of the belts. They do mean something. So winning the sole WBA title has a lot of meaning. There's a lot of eyeballs on Barroso and after his destruction of Mitchell in December they realize he's not a myth that everybody talks about, he's the real thing."

"I think if he has an equally impressive performance against Crolla - I think it's going to be open up the doors with both HBO and Showtime and he's a guy if given the opportunity to fight on HBO or Showtime with his fighting style, I think people will just fall in love with him and people love to see knockout punchers and Barroso's a throwback."

"He hits guys kind of  like a lightweight version of Mike Tyson or currently we have Gennady Golovkin who people just can't get enough off. He goes in there and he just steamrolls his opponents. Barroso is the 135-pound version of that."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.