MANCHESTER, England — Harlem Eubank believes that his upcoming fight with Jack Catterall offers him the ideal opportunity to announce himself on the world stage.

The British rivals will meet at Manchester’s AO Arena on July 5. DAZN will stream the welterweight fight globally.

Catterall (30-2, 13 KOs), a former world title challenger, has become accustomed to being a headline attraction, and although he is returning from a disappointing loss to Arnold Barboza Jr in a WBO interim junior welterweight title fight, he established himself as a top-class operator long ago.

Eubank (21-0, 9 KOs) has had to deal with plenty of attention throughout his career but has never had to step into quite so bright a spotlight.

At Tuesday’s press conference, there was no sign of an inferiority complex.

The 31-year-old from Brighton cut a confident character and clearly believes that he is in the right place at the right time.

“I’ve been wanting to fight at world level for a long time and Jack has been sitting at world level, fighting world-class operators time and time again” Eubank told The Ring.

“We know how good he is. Now it's my chance to go in there and prove how good I am.

“I've seen him over and over again at the height of the sport. That's where I've always wanted to be. He's a prime fighter, he's not over the hill. He’s not someone we're trying to catch on the way out. He is — we believe — the best out there right now in the UK and that's the type of fight I wanted next.”

Through no fault of his own, Eubank’s 2024 campaign was all but wiped out through inactivity. He spent months talking about a fight with Adam Azim only to be left high and dry when injury ruled the former European 140lb champion out of a proposed clash.

Rather than wait for a rescheduled date, Eubank went his own way but didn’t get into the ring until November when he stepped unto 147lbs and ground out an eight-round win in a mess of a fight with Nurali Erdogan.

Aware that he was in dire need of an eye-catching win, Eubank’s team secured their man a fight with the willing Tyrone McKenna whose open, aggressive style played directly into Eubank’s fast hands.

The one-sided win caused some to reassess their opinions of exactly what Eubank may be capable of, but it only bolstered his own self belief.

“It did great for the public perception of where I'm at in the sport,” he said. “I’ve had that belief for a long time and it's just getting the opportunity to show it and here we have a great opportunity to show that once again.

“I felt great. I felt strong and quick. I felt agile and I think this is my weight class. This is the hottest division in the sport and this is where I will be competing from here on in.”

Accepting the fight with the accomplished Catterall, 31, is a clear sign of Eubank’s intent.

He could have easily decided to trade on his surname and rely on his high-profile terrestrial television broadcast deal with Channel 5 to eventually carry him to a major title fight, but rather than picking a path through the welterweight division he and his team broke a boxing rule and actively sought out a fight with a strong, clever, awkward southpaw.

“I'm not trying to manoeuvre my way through the sport. I'm here to fight the best and prove that I'm the best,” Eubank said.

“We have two opponents in common, Timo Schwarzkopf and Tyrone McKenna, and I've got them both out of there within the distance. Jack fought them on his come up and he went the distance.

“I'm fighting the man and I'm not phased. I'm ready to go in there and put on a display.”

Although Eubank can’t match Catterall in terms of top-level experience, his speed of foot and willingness to stick rigidly to a disciplined gameplan give him plenty of room for optimism.

Catterall is at his best when he can dictate the pace of a fight. Since graduating to world class, he has been able to rely on his outstanding timing and accurate, hard punching picking to tame a series of aggressive fighters.

During his early career, Catterall was a ruthless predator., but he will be making his welterweight debut and hasn’t had to get on the front foot and hunt down a moving target for some time.

Eubank refused to rule out the prospect of taking the fight to Catterall, but he did admit that — at the very least — he will need to mix things up if he is to be successful at the highest level.

He believes that the conditions are primed for him to produce a career best performance.

“I can very much bring the fight,” he laughed.

“I can do all sorts of things in there and it's that well-roundedness you need in order to become a world champion. This is all about proving and showing it with a display that shows I will soon be world champion.

“A lot of their rhetoric has been that they don't know how good I am, but we've seen Jack's ceiling. We haven't seen mine yet, and I think it will become clear on the night just how far in the sport I can go.

“I feel like this is the moment I was destined for. This is when we were meant to fight. This is when I was meant to challenge at world level. Since I started boxing I’ve been preparing to become a world champion and this is one step away.”