By Keith Idec

Maurice Hooker has a feeling Jose Ramirez won’t be able to take his power late in their fight Saturday night.

The unbeaten WBO junior welterweight champion predicted a knockout in the late rounds Thursday during their final press conference in Dallas. Hooker (26-0-3, 17 KOs), a Dallas native, and Ramirez (24-0, 16 KOs), of Avenal, California, will fight for Hooker’s title and Ramirez’s WBC championship in a 12-round, 140-pound title unification fight that’ll headline DAZN’s stream from College Park Center in Arlington, Texas (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT).

“People are saying it’s gonna be a tough fight, and I hope it is,” Hooker said. “He’s gonna come at me aggressive in the opening rounds with those big left hooks. But I’ll stay calm and relaxed because, to me, in a championship fight the fight really begins in the fourth or fifth round.”

The 5-feet-11 Hooker has a height and reach advantage over Ramirez, who dropped Antonio Orozco twice and easily out-pointed him in Ramirez’s last fight against an unbeaten opponent. The 29-year-old Hooker has won four straight bouts against undefeated fighters and expects to extend that streak in impressive fashion.

“I’ll use my jab in the opening rounds and compose myself and let him punch himself out and expose himself,” Hooker said. “As the fight goes on, I will take it to him, push him back and I think I will come out of there with the late KO, as he’s not a fighter that fights on the back foot. Everyone he’s fought, he’s come to them or they have been a smaller guy. I’m tall, rangy and I have power, so I will make him adjust to me and I will hurt him.

“He’s got a good left hand to the head and the body. And I know that he’s coming to fight with pressure, and he'll be in my face the whole night, or at least try to be, and I’ve gotta try to keep him off. But I’m ready. I’ll make him adjust to me and I’ll have fun in the later rounds.”

In addition to the Hooker-Ramirez match, DAZN will stream another title defense by IBF junior lightweight champ Tevin Farmer. Philadelphia’s Farmer (29-4-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC) is scheduled to face France’s Guillaume Frenois (46-1-1, 12 KOs), Farmer’s mandatory challenger, in a 12-rounder.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.