Jay Harris introduced himself to the world with his superb performance against Julio Cesar Martinez earlier this year – and he hopes a win over Marcel Braithwaite this weekend can pave the way for another crack at world honours.

Welsh star Harris (17-1, 9 KOs) defends his Commonwealth flyweight title against Braithwaite (9-2) on a huge card at Production Park Studios in Wakefield on Sunday, live in the US on ESPN+ in association with Top Rank and worldwide on IFL TV.

It’s the first fight back for Harris since his great showing against Martinez for the WBC title back in February, and while he isn’t overlooking Braithwaite, he wants to move one step closer to another world title shot.

Harris said: “I’m very excited to get back in the ring. I’m expecting a tough fight as Marcel is going to come to win. He had a good fight with Sunny Edwards in his last outing, so I’ve trained hard and prepared for any sort of situation that Marcel is going to bring.

“I think the whole experience of the world title fight was unreal. It was the best I’ve had in boxing, during the whole build up, and even the fight, despite it not going my way. I’ve taken a lot from the whole experience and I would look forward to doing it again in the future.

“It’s really good to get straight back into a competitive fight. I didn’t want anyone that I can just blow over in a couple of rounds as there’s no point and it wouldn’t be respected. This fight on the other hand is a great fight and I’ll have to be focused and on my game, so this gets me excited.

“I’m hoping to get another world title shot, but I’m not looking past Marcel. This fight is as important as any other fight, so I’ve just got to focus on the job at hand.”