Sam Noakes has been patiently waiting for a chance to introduce himself on the world stage.

On November 22, the undefeated, hard hitting British and European lightweight champion will aim to steal the show when he travels to Riyadh to fight the highly rated American youngster, Abdullah Mason (19-0, 17 KOs), for the vacant WBO 135lb title.

The attractive looking fight has been given a prime spot on the high profile 'Ring IV' card.

Elsewhere on the bill, David Benavidez will defend his WBC light heavyweight title against Anthony Yarde, Brian Norman Jr will put his WBO welterweight title on the line against Devin Haney while current Ring and WBC junior bantamweight champion, Jessie Rodriguez, is scheduled to fight Fernando Martinez.

Noakes and Mason will be sharing the bill with some of boxing’s most established names but, given their relative fighting styles, the winner looks likely to leave Saudi Arabia as a new star of the sport.

Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs) isn’t the type of character to be overawed by rubbing shoulders with a few big names but Thursday’s star studded launch press conference marked a definite step up in terms of profile and status for the happy go lucky 27 year-old from Kent.

“Yeah, I mean, it's mental really,” Noakes told The Ring as he observed the scene at a bustling Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square.

“We’re just about to set up for the presser and obviously you've got Devin Haney and all them boys around. It's massive. It’s mega and it's only going to bring the best out of me so I'm excited for it.

“I feel less pressure for this fight than I have previous ones. I'm like, 'This is a big fight and they got me as an underdog so I've just got to turn up and do what I've got to do'.'

Noakes has been mixing in high circles this year.

In January, he got an unexpected opportunity to gauge his progress when WBC lightweight champion, Shakur Stevenson, requested some last minute sparring while he was in London.

Whereas Stevenson had been a guest at The Ring’s inaugural Gala Awards Ceremony, Noakes had just sat down for a Chinese meal when his trainer, Al Smith, called him to tell him to bring his mouthpiece to the gym the following evening.

“I think they had that gala dinner and then Skye Nicolson must have been chatting to Shakur and been like, 'We've got a lightweight in our gym if you want to spar him'.” Noakes said.

“I was like, 'Cheers, Skye, thanks a lot'. The Ring gala was on the Friday or the Saturday and then on Sunday, Al was like, 'You’re sparring tomorrow' and I'm like, 'Alright. Who am I sparring?'

“Shakur Stevenson.”

What happened in the gym will stay in the gym but both have revealed that they took plenty from the short but sharp session.

Last week, the pair once again found themselves in close proximity but with totally different bits of business to handle.

With the world’s boxing media in New York for a big week of action, it made sense for Noakes to make the flight across the Atlantic to officially announce his fight with Mason.

On Saturday night he was ringside at the atmospheric Louis Armstrong Arena in Queens as Stevenson produced an outstanding display to turn back a determined challenge from the aggressive and previously undefeated Mexican, William Zepeda, on the excellent 'Ring III' show.

Although Noakes only shared a few rounds with the man who currently leads the way at 135lbs, the experience of mixing with a genuine pound-for-pound superstar of the sport has given him the belief that his name will soon carry plenty of weight of its own.

“It was good. They were good rounds. It’s one of them things that you don't really want to be doing on a Monday night but then afterwards, I was buzzing with it,” Noakes said.

“Obviously, he had a lot of good things to say and it was a good experience.

“When you see them on television and you don't meet them, you think, 'Oh my God' everyone seems massive. Then you meet them in person, they’re roughly the same sort of size as you and then you see the margins. Listen, the geezer is unbelievable and I won't tell you anything different but the margins ain't that far away, so it's good for me to see that you can mix it with these boys.”