Australian boxers Vic Darchinyan and Billy Dib both head to America on Saturday confident of winning further boxing world titles despite being underdogs in their respective career-defining fights.
Super flyweight Darchinyan (30-1-1, 24 KOs) will attempt to unify the division in California on November 1 by adding the WBA and WBC titles of Mexican Christian Mijares (36-3-2, 15 KOs) to the IBF title he already owns.
Darchinyan, 32, usually starts favourite for his fights, but is likely to be an underdog against 27-year-old Mijares, who is rated the world's top super flyweight by the prestigious Ring magazine.
"At the moment, I think I might be underdog, but by the fight I'm going to be the favourite, I just feel it," Darchinyan said today.
"All the boxing experts think he's going to be too smart for me, I'm going to prove different.
"I'm going to beat this guy, I'm going to knock him out. They will see that I'm going to keep my promise."
Fellow Sydney-sider Dib, who won the IBO super featherweight world title in his last bout, will fight for the more widely recognised WBO featherweight crown on October 18 in Atlantic City.
The 23-year-old Australian will challenge American Steven Luevano (35-1, 15 KOs) for the WBO crown on the undercard of the Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins contest.
Dib (21-0, 11 KOs) expected his clash with the 27-year-old Southport champion to be a strategic battle.
"It's going to be the battle of the jabs. He's got a great jab and so have I and whoever is going to make it work the best is going to win," Dib said.
"I know everything about him, I've watched his last five or six fights.
"It's a step up in class.
"People expect me to be over-awed by the moment, I won't be," added Dib, who has already appeared on several big fight promotions in America.
