By Thomas Gerbasi

For the first time in a long time, the heavyweight championship has owned the headlines in the boxing world. Whether it’s Tyson Fury’s upset of Wladimir Klitschko, Charles Martin entering the race as the new IBF champion, or Deontay Wilder’s power putting a spirited effort from Artur Szpilka to rest, the sport’s glamour division isn’t back where it used to be, but it’s getting there.

Yet the one man who may want to see the heavyweight division return to the front page more than anyone else isn’t one of those belt holders or even a top contender. He even lost his last fight – at least according to the judges. But Amir Mansour still believes.

“It means everything,” he said. “There’s nothing bigger than the heavyweight championship of the world. There’s nothing bigger than an exciting heavyweight championship fight. Years ago, a heavyweight championship fight was bigger than the Super Bowl, bigger than the World Series. If I could get the baton, and carry the baton, I’d bring the excitement back to the heavyweight championship belt.”

As much as he believes, it’s impossible not to believe him back. Sure, the odds are against a 43-year-old heavyweight beating back the giants of the division while standing at only 6-foot-1, but the odds of Mansour even being here after years behind bars that threatened not only his career, but his life.

He is here though, a testament to the power of will and an insistence of not going back to the life that led him to prison. Since returning to the ring in 2013, he has gone 6-1-1. His lone loss to Steve Cunningham in 2014 was a close one that saw him put the former cruiserweight champion on the deck twice, and most who viewed his draw with 16-0 Gerald Washington last October believed “Hardcore” should have gotten the nod.

This Saturday, Mansour will be at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles to face another 16-0 prospect in Dominic Breazeale. Once again, he’s the “B” side as he faces the local favorite, and as confident as Mansour is when it comes to winning the fight, he admits that if it goes the distance, he isn’t as positive.

“I’m very concerned,” he said. “It’s a shame. You wonder what would anybody do if they were doing that in the NBA or NFL. They catch them making consistent off calls, they investigate it. They might even lock ‘em up. In boxing, it’s a given. It’s just bad and it’s really a deterrent.”

Delaware’s Mansour isn’t about to turn back – not now, not ever.

“I just know that at the end of the day, it’s gonna be what it’s gonna be. I have to take this and keep moving forward. That’s all I can do.”

That’s in the ring and outside of it as well. Mansour only knows one direction, and it’s made him a fan favorite and the ideal example of “high risk, low reward” in the division. He was in the picture to face Wilder last weekend for a brief moment, only to see that shot go to Szpilka. But undeterred, Mansour stepped in for Martin against Breazeale, and if he wins on the FOX-televised card, he may earn himself a top 15 ranking, effectively putting him in the title picture. He even traveled to Brooklyn last week to scout some folks who might be future foes.

“Watching guys from ringside versus TV, you’re always able to see a lot more, and I was there analyzing things,” he said. “All I need is for them to make the match.”

With the division more wide open than it’s been in years, Mansour would be a live underdog against any of the current champions, but he has to beat Breazeale first to even keep this conversation going. And while he may giving up the physical advantages to the 6-foot-7 former football player, when it comes to experience, that’s all Mansour, who doesn’t even give his opponent an edge anywhere.

“The only advantage he’s got is that he’s taller than me and I don’t consider that an advantage if you don’t know how to use that height,” Mansour said. “Other than that, he’s not stronger than me, he’s not faster than me. His only advantage is that he may have the judges looking out for him.”

If you’ve lived a life like Amir Mansour has, being blunt and telling it the way he sees it is the only way to go. There are no frills to the words that come out of his mouth or to his fighting style, and if he can come back from all the negatives to leave a positive legacy, what a story that would be. But in so many ways, it already is, so who better to ask what the much-maligned sport of boxing has meant to him.

“I’ll tell you like this,” Mansour said. “Boxing has done for me and means to me the same as it means to Deontay Wilder, the same as it meant to Lennox Lewis, Klitschko, Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes. It’s a life-saving job. It’s how I feed my family, it’s how I take care of my children, how I help take care of my mother, my brothers. Boxing is not just my sport, it’s my job. It’s helping me sustain my life and the life of the people that I love and those that are around me. It allows me to help strangers and inspire strangers that don’t know me, but just know my story and who I am. It helps me entertain people from all over the world. Boxing is my lifeline and it’s the lifeline of us all.”