LAS VEGAS – Jahi Tucker believes a fight against unified middleweight titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly is within reach with a win on Saturday. 

Tucker will face Troy Williamson in a 10-round middleweight bout at Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

Tucker, 13-1-1 (6 KOs), would be the first one to tell you he isn’t overlooking his opponent, but the 22-year-old from Deer Park, New York, is still anticipating a major opportunity soon. The timing appears right, with Alimkhanuly facing Anauel Ngamissengue in his native Kazakhstan on the same day as Tucker’s scheduled bout.

“Once I take care of business on Saturday, that fight is very realistic,” Tucker told BoxingScene. “It could be sooner than we all expect. If I get that phone call, I will hop on that plane, head over to Kazakhstan and I will walk out a world champion.”

Tucker has not taken the easy road. He has fought in three weight classes, starting at welterweight, and is now competing at middleweight. His opposition in his past eight fights had a combined record of 92-16-3. The difficulty of the schedule came with a cost: Tucker lost a majority decision to Nicklaus Flaz in 2023 and followed that performance with a majority draw against Francisco Daniel Vernon. He moved on to middleweight, where he has won three straight fights.

Asked how he would approach a fight with Alimkhanuly, Tucker didn’t mince words.

“There’s only one way to approach it: Game 7, do-or-die,” Tucker said. “You've got to go out there, you've got to take what's yours. I'd have to stop him. No matter what happens, I would have to stop him.”

Tucker is currently not rated by any of the major sanctioning bodies. A win over Williamson, 20-3-1 (14 KOs), he hopes, would change that. A 33-year-old from the United Kingdom, Williamson will enter on a two-fight losing streak and having lost three of his past four – though two of those defeats came against contenders Ishmael Davis and Josh Kelly. He doesn’t figure to be a walkover for Tucker.

“This is me announcing that I'm a contender in the middleweight division and I'm here to stay,” Tucker said. “It is my first 10-round fight and I'm going to show I am the real deal.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.