Paul Butler has promised to ‘make a statement’ as his road back to the top begins in Manchester this weekend.
Four months have passed since the 26-year-old from Great Sutton lost his unbeaten record to IBF world super-flyweight champion Zolani Tete.
Defeat is not an experience the former IBF world bantamweight king has been familiar with in a rapid rise through the rankings and he admits he found it tough to deal with.
Butler meets Gustavo Molina on Saturday night and plans to make light work of the Mexican as he plots a route back into world title contention.
“I’ve been in the gym since pretty much the day after the Tete fight and I’ve been ready to go for a while,” said Butler.
“Boxing being boxing, it’s been frustrating because I would have fought six weeks after that if I’d have had my way but we’re in fight week now and I’m ready.
“To be honest, I haven’t really looked at Gustavo Molina: he’s had 19 wins and six defeats but he’s not been in with much. He’s there to be taken out and that’s what I will be doing because I want to make a statement.”
IN PICTURES: Paul Butler's boxing career
Butler added: “It can be hard to keep motivated but I’m coming off the back of a loss so I need to get in there and prove to people and prove to myself that I belong at world level. That defeat has given me the extra 10% motivation in training that I needed.
“I still believe I will be a two-weight world champion and that’s the reason I’m staying at super-flyweight. A lot of the time when a boxer loses he looks for a reason and changes weight but I came across a better man on the night in Tete so I’ve taken that on the chin and moved on.”
Ireland’s Jamie Conlan, holder of the WBO inter-continental super-flyweight belt Butler once possessed, has been mooted as a future opponent in what could be a world title eliminator.
“There’s been a lot of talk about that one,” said Butler, who beat Conlan as an amateur.
“He’s ranked quite highly so if I come through on Saturday then we can look at setting a date and hopefully that fight could be a final eliminator.
“His brother has been giving it a bit on Twitter but I think Jamie’s interviews reveal a lot. Before his fight on Saturday, he said he’d come to Liverpool and stop me but then 20 minutes after being dropped twice in seventh round and scraping a win he said he’d leave it to his team to decide.
"I think he’s realised he might need a few more fights because I’ve boxed at world level and he hasn’t so I believe I’d find him out.”
