Former British and Commonwealth bantamweight champion Paul Butler will get his chance to fight John Reil Casimero for the WBO Bantamweight title at Liverpool's M & S Bank Arena on Friday.
The Baby-Faced Assassin from nearby Ellesmere Port is the WBO's number-one contender and will take on the Filipino, who will be making the third defence of the title he has held since beating Zolani Tete in Birmingham in November 2019.
Butler had been beaten by Emmanuel Rodriguez by a unanimous decision at the o2 in London in May 2018 when attempting to win the IBF version of the title, but bounced back when he beat Willibaldo Garcia Perez by split decision over ten rounds in Bolton.
Casimero v Butler odds
Casimero is considered the hot favourite for Friday's fight and is 1/25 to get the better of his 33-year-old opponent, while he is 10/11 to win the TKO, KO or Disqualification.
Butler, meanwhile, is 10/1 to mount a successful challenge.
Casimero v Butler - Where and when?
The fight will take place in Liverpool and is expected to start at approximately 10pm local time and the bout will also be shown live on Eurosport 1.
The fight was originally scheduled to take place in Dubai in December of last year, but Casimero was forced to pull out due to illness.
What are the records of the fighters?
Casimero has had 35 professional fights, winning 31 of them and 21 of those victories have come inside the distance.
He claimed a third-round technical knockout when he won the title from Tete and he has gradually moved up the weights, having previously held the IBF titles at both light-flyweight and flyweight.
His last bout was in August when he beat Guillermo Rigondeaux with a split decision when they met at Dignity Health Sports Park in California, USA and this will be the fourth defence of his title.
Butler, who was born in Chester, has won 33 of his 35 professional fights and 15 of those successes came inside the distance.
He previously held the IBF bantamweight title when he beat Stuart Hall in 2014, but he eventually relinquished that crown so he could move down the weights before fighting again at the 115lb-118lb (52.2kg-53.5kg) class.
Casimero v Butler - Who wins?
Casimero is regarded as a hot favourite for the fight and this looks to be a massive step up for Butler, who has not faced opponents of a high calibre recently.
The Englishman has stopped just one of his last eight adversaries, so he may be hoping to grind this one out. Whether he will manage it is debatable.
While Casimero's last bout against Rigondeaux was not an action-packed affair, the champion could demonstrate enough aggression to put on a bit of a show and is 10/11 to win by Decision or Technical Decision.
That should prove to be the difference as, while Butler has enjoyed a fine career at domestic and European level and won his first 17 fights, this could just prove too tough an assignment.
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