Chinese heavyweight Zhang Zhilei, who usually towers over his opponents, will return to the ring this Saturday night in a scrap for the WBO interim-heavyweight title against Joe Joyce at the Copper Box Arena in London
Both Joyce and Zhang are Olympic silver medal winners.
Zhang, who turns 40 in May, is possibly in his last opportunity to secure a world title shot.
He is coming off a close, and some felt controversial, decision loss to Filip Hrgovic in an IBF final eliminator.
For his part, Joyce returns after scoring a sectional knockout of former world champion Joseph Parker.
The winner of the upcoming fight will fall in line for a mandatory crack at IBF, WBO, IBO, WBA champion Oleksandr Usyk.
"My goal is to open up a field for Chinese boxers and add our names to the heavyweight competitions. It's not an easy trip here, but I feel like I'm getting closer to my dream," Zhang told Xinhua. "My dream is to win the world championship, the title belt."
Neither Zhang nor Joyce is highly regarded for speed - but the two massive boxers are very respected as big punchers.
The once-beaten boxer realizes that both he and Joyce could end this contest with a single punch.
"We are both Olympic silver medalists and share basically the same age, weight and height. I think it will be a good bout," Zhang told Xinhua.
"There is no such thing in a heavyweight fight [as a slow boxer] because all it takes is either one punch or one combo to knock someone down. That's how powerful our punches are."
Despite his age, Zhang trains very hard on a regular basis to stay in top form.
"Training is my daily life because I may have been doing it in 10 of the 12 months every year. Whenever there is a fight, I will go to practice with a sparring partner for two to three months in a training camp," Zhang said.
