MONTREAL, Canada — Fast rising lightweight contender Dzmitry Asanau will look to take the next step in his burgeoning career when he returns to action against Laid Douadi on Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Montreal Casino.

The Eye of The Tiger event will be headlined by Osleys Iglesias-Vladimir Shishkin and will be broadcast on punchinggrace.com at 6:30 p.m. ET.

The 29-year-old who lives in Dubai but is originally from Belarus acknowledges Douadi could provide him with some issues.

"[It is a] good experience to fight with an undefeated guy," Asanau (10-0, 4 knockouts) told The Ring. "He's a southpaw, I've watched some videos of him, he's a technician.

"We have 10 rounds to adapt to his style. I think [in] this fight my amateur background will help me a lot because I fought with a lot of good southpaws."

Asanau, who prepared for five weeks in Dubai and a further seven in Montreal, hasn't left anything to chance and has surrounded himself with the best southpaw sparring available.

"We found some [Canadian] national champions, Keoma Ali and also [2024 Olympic bronze medalist] Wyatt Sanford, he's a good prospect. Also in Dubai, I sparred with Jazza Dickens, he's the WBA Interim junior lightweight champion. These guys are on the top level not only in the amateurs but the pros as well."

Asanau is coming off a 10-round unanimous decision win over Francesco Patera in April. Despite the dominant display, the win came at a cost.

"In Round 4, I slipped in the corner, and I injured my hamstring on the right leg," he explained. "That was almost four weeks [out]. I did recovery, I went to Belarus to see a doctor.

"I also injured my right knee. That was a very, very tough time for me. When you have an injury you think, 'I need the time to rest.' but at the same time, I want to be active, I want to do everything perfect and be super disciplined to recover faster. I hope this will help me. My meniscus in my right knee, but the doctor said, I didn't need surgery because it would take a long time to recover but I had to do a lot of physiotherapy and exercise for my knee but to be super disciplined. You understand you need to spend the same time for your recovery that you spend on your training."

The former amateur standout initially took some time to bed into the professional game after turning professional in 2022 but appears to have found his feet.

"I think only now with Eye of The Tiger I have changed my mind about professional boxing," he said. "When I was with Universum, no one explained to me that the professionals were a little bit different.

"When I came to Montreal the first time, I thought, 'These guys know a lot about professional boxing. Marc Ramsay has six world champions and Sam [Decarie] is super experienced. It's helped me a lot. No need to move too much. Only now I understand what you want from me in professional boxing, I can keep my movement, footwork but sometimes you need to put some pressure."

The lightweight division is bustling with talent and Asanau believes he needs further seasoning and can then look to become his countries fourth world titleholder, joining the likes of former WBO heavyweight titlist Siarhei Liakhovich and junior welterweight titleholders Ivan Baranchyk and Kiryl Relikh.

"I think two, three fights with experienced guys," he said. "In lightweight right now, we have a lot of young prospects. Abdullah Mason is super talented; [WBC champion] Shakur Stevenson is very tough and a good guy. Others like Miguel Berchelt who was a champion at junior lightweight, Ricardo Nunez the WBC No. 2, if you beat them you will say, 'OK, I beat this guy, they know how to fight with young prospects.'

"Why not, they're higher ranking than me. They will give me a good fight. I will test myself; I will challenge myself. Right now, I am focused only on this guy this week, this guy is not an easy fight, he doesn't know how to lose and will be a good challenge for me also."

Douadi (27-0-1, 3 KOs) has been a professional since 2014. He has twice won the French title, once in 2019 and again in 2022. He has since won an IBF regional title.

The 32-year-old Frenchman doesn't have a signature win but holds a win over Hedi Slimani (SD 8) and is coming off a rare stoppage over Otto Gamez (KO 3) in April.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on X @AnsonWainwr1ght