THE FIGHT top boxing promoter Frank Warren has said will be one of the three biggest he has staged in 25 years as a promoter, if not THE biggest, is now just over eight days away.

But whether the world super-middleweight unification fight between myself as WBO champion and America's IBF champion Jeff Lacy turns out to be as good as that does not concern me.

It certainly has all the ingredients to be a very good fight, but who knows. As long as I win I couldn't give a damn what sort of fight it is.

Winning is all that matters and to me the best way to do that is to out-box him, frustrate him and take advantage when he makes mistakes, which he will.

If that means the fight isn't as dynamic as some people hoping for a toe-to-toe slugfest would like, that's hard luck. My job is to win by the best means possible.

I eased off the sparring last week having had a solid week of it before that, but have got back into it and have trained pretty hard all this week.

My weight has always been a bit of a struggle but it's fine now and I'll easily exercise the last few pounds off which is preferable to jumping in the saunas.

Because the fight is due to go on at 2am to satisfy American TV network Showtime (the fight mark's their 20th anniversary) I have been staying up to 2am or 3am and training at 10pm to get my body used to things.

But I don't think the time of the fight will be of any real significance once the adrenalin kicks in.

I went into the ring against Chris Eubank at a quarter past midnight and I didn't stay up late to prepare for that.

I'll leave it as late as possible before going to Manchester (the fight's at the MEN Arena) though I'll have to be there a few days before the fight for media interviews.

Because we are both undefeated, me with 40 wins and Lacy with 21, and because we have 48 KOs or stoppages between us, many people are expecting an inside the distance finish.

Certainly everyone seems to believe this will be the toughest fight of my career but though Lacy is without doubt one of the best boxers I'll have fought, whether he's THE best I'm not sure.

I've been in the ring with a lot of former world champions and world class fighters but he hasn't, so he has a lot to prove.

Syd Vanderpool and Omar Sheika were good opponents and, ok, I struggled with Robin Reid, who Lacy put down four times, but boxing's not so simple that you can draw conclusions from that and the fights were years apart.

Lacy struggled with Sheika and I took care of him in five rounds. As I've said before, styles make fights and its all about how you handle things on the night.

Lacy is a good boxer but he's chiefly a puncher who is more effective when he comes forward.

I've watched a lot of his fights on tape and he takes over in the middle rounds with power punching in both hands which keeps him out of jail, so to speak.

But for the most part, the fighters he has fought and managed to take care of are not in my league.

I'm a much more experienced fighter and a better fighter and as long as I take my best into this fight I know I will win. It's as simple as that.

Because of Lacy's alleged punching power, I was asked if this was a fight I feared I might lose and whether I had ever gone into a fight fearing defeat.

The answer on both counts is no, though a fighter knows that every single fight he goes into carries a risk, so you feel some pressure in every fight, even those against opponents you're supposed to walk all over.

Silly and surprising things happen in boxing and even massive favourites get beat as we've seen so often in the past year or so.

But I'm the world's longest-reigning champion and believe I am a better fighter than Lacy. And this is a fight that will put me up another level before I move up to light-heavyweight for a couple of big pay-days.

I also sometimes get asked what keeps me going at the age of 33 after so many title defences.

Well the money's obviously a massive factor at the end of the day, but it's not the only factor, it's also about the pride of being a champion.

And though it gets harder as you get older and I know can't go on for ever, boxing is what I do.

Before long it's going to be over, another 16 months or so, and I don't want to look back and think jeez I should have done this, or jeez I should have done that.

Hopefully, I'll never be defeated but, if it happens, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

There would be a lot of things to consider regarding whether to retire or carry on, including age and whether I could get another shot at a title.

But I've not really thought about it. At the end of the day you have to remain positive and I'm positive I can beat Lacy.

Obviously he's confident too, confident enough in his own ability to come over here, but that's a big mistake on his part.

His promoter has claimed he will be the biggest name in any weight division by the end of the year, but he's bound to say that, isn't he?

I don't personally think he's a great fighter. He's got a lot of flaws. He's an explosive fighter, but I'm explosive as well and I believe that with my hand speed, my skills and my power I can expose his weaknesses.

Believe me, he will be hit a lot in this fight and pushed to the limit and we'll see how good he is.