• Inside Boxing

'This time next year I could be a superstar'

Jamie McDonnell believes he could hold four world title belts by this time next year © Getty Images

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Jamie McDonnell tells ESPN he is confident his dream of being undisputed world bantamweight champion and holding all four world titles next year can become reality. The Doncaster boxer makes the first defence of his WBA belt in Liverpool on November 22 and admits he knows nothing about Colombian challenger Walberto Ramos…

It's great news that if I win my next fight I will face WBO bantamweight champion Tomoki Kameda in a world title unification bout next year. If you look at the scores from Kameda's fight against Alejandro Hernandez last Saturday, he only just came through it so I think it's a cracking fight for me.

My promoter Eddie Hearn says it will be in Las Vegas, the deal has already been done and it's the sort of fight that every boxer dreams about. It could happen on the same card as Carl Froch against Julio Cesar Chavez Junior - if that fight gets made - and it would be an honour to be on the same bill as one of Carl's fights again.

Kameda is a boxer who can come forward, throws a million jabs and has a good body shot - but I don't see too much which is going to faze me. I will have to keep it on my toes against him for the first half of the fight before stepping it up. I will have to study Kameda more after November 22 and it's looking like March or April when we will fight.

Hopefully I can win my next two fights and you never know there could be another world title unification after that because there is talk of IBF champion Randy Caballero and the WBC champion Shinsuke Yamanaka fighting next year.

McDonnell admits to knowing nothing about next opponent Walberto Ramos © Getty Images

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It would be great to fight the winner of that when all four world title belts would be on the line. That would be a massive fight because I don't think anyone has held all four world title belts at the same time for years now. To do that would turn me into a superstar and it could happen if all goes to plan in my next two fights. By the end of next year I could have all four world title belts in my hands.

I've always said I want to clean up at bantamweight. A few years ago when I saw Floyd Mayweather Jr with five or six belts, I decided I want to be like that. I believe it's possible and it's within my reach, especially if the other two world champions - Yamanaka and Caballero - also fight each other next year.

I'm looking forward to the Kameda fight, but first I have to take care of business against Ramos. I know he is experienced and boxed for the world flyweight title in 2006. But apart from his record, I know nothing about him. I can't get any footage of him on YouTube or anywhere so I can just go through his record and rely on a few bits through word of mouth.

It's different to other fights this next one and you wonder why there's no footage at all of Ramos because he's boxed for a world title. It's unreal, but I've got to get on with it. I don't even know what he looks like. I could be standing next to him at the weigh-in and speaking to him for ten minutes before I realise who he is.

I can't really think about fighting Ramos when I do my runs because I don't know anything about him. I just have to concentrate on getting myself ready and I'm sure I will pull it off.

Having the world title unification fight with Kameda already signed before my next fight is not a distraction. It is extra motivation and an added pressure. I'm trying to pay my house off and set up a business in the next year and it would all go out the window if I lose this next one. All this talk of unification fights would be gone. There's too much at stake for me cut any corners or take him lightly.

I don't know if he's an easy touch or not because I haven't seen any footage of him. I'm going into this blind. There is more pressure on me now that the Kameda fight has already been made.

My ambitions lie in the bantamweight division and if I've made enough money by winning all four world title belts I could call it a day. You don't want to be punch drunk by going on too long and I would have won every single belt going.

But I would move up to super-bantamweight by the end of year depending on how the fights at bantamweight go. Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg are British fighters doing really well at super-bantamweight and if I move up I will be an established name. There would be big fights at super-bantamweight but we will have to see how it goes in the next year.

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