Uisma Lima likes being underestimated.

It motivated him more than ever while he prepared for the biggest fight of his career Saturday night in Philadelphia. If American boxing fans and experts worldwide were more familiar with him, however, the Angolan junior middleweight thinks he wouldn’t be seen as such an overmatched opponent for former Ring/IBF/WBA welterweight champ Jaron “Boots” Ennis.

Even though Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs, 1 NC) has expressed respect for Lima’s skills and his willingness to fight in Ennis’ hometown, Lima (14-1, 10 KOs) is convinced his heavily favored opponent has taken him lightly ahead of their 12-round fight for the WBA interim super welterweight title.

“Boots is American,” Lima told The Ring. “They’re so cocky, so confident. He thinks he’s the best of the best. I need to surprise them. I think I will surprise many people in this fight.”

Lima, 32, has won four fights in a row, all in the countries where his opponents reside. The last three of those conquests came against undefeated fighters, but Germany’s Haro Matevosyan (18-1, 9 KOs), Canada’s Sukhdeep Singh Bhatti (20-1, 8 KOs) and South Africa’s Shervantaigh Koopman (15-1, 10 KOs) will never be mistaken for Ennis.

The multidimensional Ennis has a ring IQ, hand speed, power, versatility and athleticism like Lima has never encountered. Lima, who has resided in Portugal since he was 8, nevertheless believes he is different from the 34 opponents Ennis has beaten on his way to earning acclaim as one of the most gifted fighters in boxing.

“I think I’m a good boxer,” Lima said, “but because people don’t know me, I don’t fight in big events like Matchroom. Since I do boxing I start my journey alone. Me and my team in Portugal, we win all my fights. We win. We put in the hard work, put in the strategy and we win our fights like this. With Boots, we put the best hard work in this camp.

“I have skills, I have ring IQ, I have footwork. I’m stronger, I’m faster, I can change my stance, I can change my strategy. We put a game plan together. The camp went so well. I’m so prepared, so confident for the fight. I feel ready, not only for Boots, for anyone in the division.”

Like the 28-year-old Ennis, Lima is comfortable fighting from conventional and southpaw stances. He also considers his experience as a junior middleweight and middleweight an advantage over Ennis, who moved up from the welterweight limit of 147 pounds following his six-round domination of former WBA champ Eimantas Stanionis (16-1, 9 KOs, 1 NC) in their title unification fight April 12 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Lima will fight in the United States for the first time when he faces Ennis, a 30-1 favorite according to DraftKings, in a main event DAZN will stream globally from Xfinity Mobile Arena (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT). It’s a potentially life-changing chance for a contender who didn’t start competing as an amateur boxer until he was 21, after he went 5-0 in mixed martial arts and 14-2 in kickboxing.

“People don’t know me, so they’re underestimating me,” Lima said. “They say, ‘Who is this guy?’ When people don’t know a person, they always say [expletive]. But I’m used to this. It’s normal for me. Since Day One I know I need to fight in other countries because in Portugal we have [bad] boxing. Our boxing is weak. We need to go to other countries and fight. But I think this is a great opportunity to show how capable I am.”