By Miguel Rivera

Antonio Lozada believes that his upcoming fight against Puerto Rican lightweight Felix "Diamante" Verdejo is extremely dangerous, but he also believes that the reward for taking away that undefeated record will open a lot of doors.

The fight is scheduled to take place in New York on March 17. Top Rank has not yet made the fight official but is expected to do so soon.

Lozada says he already signed the agreement for the fight with Verdejo (23-0, 15 KO's).

Lozada has spent a better part of his career at 140 pounds, but he has no problem going down to 135 pounds and he even thinks he could go down to 130 pounds if a good opportunity comes out.

"The truth is, this is the fight of my life, it's the door to the big leagues," said Lozada, who at 27 has a record of 37-2 and 31 knockouts, to ESPN Deportes.

"All my life I dreamed of an opportunity, this is the fight. By winning this we, we can rise up and go for everything."

On what he expects from Verdejo, he hopes to fight best possible version of the boxer.

Over the last few years, Verdejo has suffered injuries and put in lackluster performances in the ring. They were scheduled to fight last September, but Verdejo withdrew with a claimed wrist injury after suffering a bad fall in the bathroom.

"What happened to him, his fall in the bathtub, are things that just happen. It's a fight, now the criticisms are over, I hope for the best Verdejo," he said.

Finally, he said that due to the clash of styles, the fight can steal the night. The card will be headlined by a junior welterweight clash between Amir Imam and José Ramírez.

"It's an explosive fight, I'm going to leave the best of me in the ring as always and I promise you an explosion fight. I'm going for everything, the best thing is that at lightweight I will have no problem, I had fought a lot at junior welterweight and even higher, but I feel good at 135 pounds, and I even thought about going down to 130 pounds if a good opportunity came out," Lozada said.