Bruce Carrington hoped to win his first featherweight title by beating a reigning champion.

Once it became clear that boxing’s four 126-pound titleholders had other plans, the WBC approved an interim title bout between Brooklyn, New York’s Carrington and Namibia’s Mateus Heita. The No. 1-ranked Carrington, better known by “Shu Shu,” realizes most American boxing fans aren’t familiar with the 11th-rated Heita, but he has prepared as if he were to challenge champions Nick Ball (WBA), Rafael Espinoza (WBO), Stephen Fulton (WBC) or Angelo Leo (IBF) on Saturday night in New York.

“He’s definitely one of those guys that you cannot look past,” Carrington told The Ring regarding Heita. “Just because he doesn’t have a lotta footage on him or his experience is whatever, he’ll definitely come in in tip-top shape for this opportunity he has fighting me. I’m sure of it and I feel like this is gonna be a very interesting fight.”

DraftKings lists Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) as a whopping 40-1 favorite to beat Heita (14-0, 9 KOs) in a 12-round co-feature ESPN will televise from The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Xander Zayas (21-0, 13 KOs), of Sunrise, Florida, and Jorge Garcia (33-4, 26 KOs), of Los Mochis, Mexico, are set to fight for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title in the 12-round main event of promoter Top Rank’s final telecast of its eight-year partnership with ESPN.

Carrington, 28, on paper appears to be the most daunting assignment of Heita’s 6½-year pro career. Heita, also 27, has beaten a modest list of opponents and has fought almost exclusively in Namibia.

Carrington recognizes that pulling off a huge upset would alter Heita’s life, though, much the way Jeremia Nakathila’s stoppage of Miguel Berchelt did for Namibian stablemate three years ago.

“He’s highly rated for a reason,” Carrington said. “This guy is no slouch. He gets the opponents in front of him out of there the way he’s supposed to.”

There isn’t much footage available of Heita’s fights, 13 of which have taken place in his home country. Carrington is nonetheless comfortable with how much he has learned about his opponent.

“He fights kinda like a boxer-puncher,” Carrington said. “He doesn’t really use his feet much. He likes to be able to fight off of the low, lead-hand guard, kinda like a shoulder-roll approach. He has a decent jab. He seems like he has decent power in the way that he breaks down his opponents. But I just don’t think he has enough in his arsenal to be able to deal with a guy like me.”

ESPN’s broadcast is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday night. Emiliano Vargas (14-0, 12 KOs), a junior welterweight prospect from Las Vegas, and Ecuador’s Alexander Espinoza (20-3-1, 9 KOs) will open the tripleheader in an eight-rounder.