By Edward Chaykovsky

This coming Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California - undefeated Omar "Panterita" Figueroa Jr. (23-0-1, 17 KOs), of Weslaco, Texas, will defend his WBC lightweight world championship against mandatory challenger Daniel "Tremendo" Estrada (32-2-1, 24 KOs), of Mexico City.

Figueroa has been plagued with hand injuries since early last year, which have caused moments of inactivity in his career and cancellations of scheduled fights.

He admits the issues with his hands will likely never go away and hopes they hold up on Saturday.  

"My hands will always be an issue. We will find out how long they last me on Saturday. I hope they last me long enough to get rid of my opponent. If not, then I will have to suck it up," Figueroa said.

Estrada is coming to make it a high impact fight, which is something that Figueroa is looking forward to.

"I haven't looked at any footage of Estrada but my father tells me that he is a straight forward kind of guy. He will get punched a lot and I have to be prepared for that. I am trained in a certain way that will give me the opportunity to exploit his weaknesses. I will focus a lot on the body like I always do," Figueroa said.