The WBO World Interim Super Welterweight Championship is on the line at the Manchester Arena on Saturday, when Liam Smith takes on the undefeated Liam Williams in an intriguing match-up between two top British boxing talents.
It might be something of an overused boxing cliche, but this clash between the nation's two best super-welterweights is really shaping up to be 50/50 fight.
Liverpudlian Liam Smith, 24-1-1 (13), has held British, Commonwealth and WBO honours at 154lbs but suffered his first professional defeat last September in devastating fashion when Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez halted him in nine.
Since that defeat, the 28 year-old scored a four-round points victory against Romanian journeyman Marian Cazacu, although that was about little more than shedding ring rust prior to this weekend's showdown.
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Smith's most notable win came in 2015 when he stopped the capable American John Thompson in the seventh round to claim the vacant WBO word title.
'Beefy', as he is known amongst boxing fans, possesses great footwork, a solid chin (although he was floored three times by Alvarez) and is much stronger than his relatively modest 50% knockout ratio suggests - the Merseyside man had knocked out eight in a row prior to his fight with Canelo.
His opponent, Welshman Liam William, currently holds the super-welter Lonsdale Belt and is yet to taste defeat in the paid ranks after 17 fights, although the 24 year old is yet to fight above domestic level.
With a 65% knockout rate as a pro, Williams, on a run of eight straight wins within the distance himself, is clearly a big hitter. He's holds a sharp jab and like Smith has a tight guard which he likes to throw big lefts to the body from.
In such a close encounter, logic dictates to back the most experienced of the two. In this case, we favour Smith whose experience in going nine rounds with arguably the pound for pound best fighter on the planet, could prove invaluable.
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Williams has also shown something of a short fuse in recent bouts. In his career best win against the previously unbeaten Gary Corcoran last year, Williams appeared to lose his cool when things weren't going quite his way, and it seemed to affect his overall performance.
He won that fight, eventually finding a killer blow, but he cannot afford to make the same mistakes against a fighter like Liam Smith and hopefully he and his trainer, Gary Lockett, have worked on his temperament going in to this one.
We're expecting a tight encounter where little separates the two combatants but Smith should have enough in his locker to triumph over the younger Liam on the scorecards.
Recommended bet: Liam Smith by decision or technical decision, 12/5 - Bet365
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On the undercard, underrated WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan, 32-0 (13) makes the fifth defence of his title against Petr Petrov, 38-4-2 (19).
Manchester's Flanagan should have a tough task in the well-travelled Petrov this weekend, who is on a run of six straight wins against solid opposition.
Though clearly a tough fighter, Petrov has yet to taste success in a world-level fight, having previously come unstuck against both Marcos Maidana in 2011 and Dejan Zlaticanin in 2013.
This is a clash between two aggressive lightweights and has the potential to be a lot of fun but we're backing the champion to retain his title once again. With an exceptional work rate, expect him to claim a hard-fought points victory this weekend.
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Recommended bet: Terry Flanagan by Decision or Technical Decision, 7/4 - SkyBet
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