Ohara Davies is nine years younger than Ismael Barroso, who looks considerably older than the Venezuelan veteran’s listed age of 40.

Davies dismissed Barroso’s age disadvantage as their 12-round, 140-pound title fight nears, however, because Barroso was beating Rolly Romero on all three scorecards when Barroso’s last fight was peculiarly, prematurely stopped in the ninth round May 13 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The 31-year-old Davies is nevertheless listed as a 5-1 favorite by most sportsbooks to beat Barroso on Saturday night in the co-feature before Vergil Ortiz Jr. squares off against Ghana’s Fredrick Lawson in the 12-round main event of a four-fight card DAZN will stream from Virgin Hotels Las Vegas (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT).

“I’m not looking at the age because he’s kept himself in shape,” Davies told BoxingScene.com. “He’s really kept himself in shape. A lot of people his age, they let themselves go and their body shuts down on them. They can’t perform. Ismael Barroso, he still performs, and we saw that in his last fight. He threw some good shots. He looked better in his last fight than he did in his mid-30s. So, listen, his age, I’m not gonna go and be deceived by that. I’m expecting a very hard fight. That’s why I’ve worked this hard. I ain’t worked this hard for no reason.”

The left-handed Barroso (24-4-2, 22 KOs) dropped Romero with a straight left in the third round of their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event. Romero got up, yet he continued to lose rounds until referee Tony Weeks strangely stepped between them and stopped their scheduled 12-rounder at 2:41 of the ninth round.

Barroso led on the cards of judges Tim Cheatham (76-75), David Sutherland (77-74) and Steve Weisfeld (78-73) entering the ninth round.

The suspect stoppage notwithstanding, the WBA then ordered Romero to make a mandated defense against Davies of the super lightweight title he won by beating Barroso.

North Las Vegas’ Romero (15-1, 13 KOs) was subsequently granted an injury exemption by the WBA due to an undisclosed ailment. The WBA therefore ordered Davies (25-2, 18 KOs) to box Barroso for its interim title and has given Romero until March 20 to defend his crown versus the winner.

Davies and Barroso were initially scheduled to meet December 2 at Toyota Center in Houston, on the Ryan Garcia-Oscar Duarte undercard. Their fight was postponed five weeks because Davies’ visa issue would’ve prevented him from flying from London to Houston until three days before he was scheduled to battle Barroso.

London’s Davies arrived in Las Vegas on December 27 and is anxious to finally end his 10-month layoff.

“Barroso is very experienced,” Davies said, “and even though he doesn’t have the physical attributes now that he had a couple years ago, with his experience he knows how to use what he has to his own benefit. This is what I’ve seen. I’ve been watching him. I’ve been analyzing him, studying him. I’ve brought my computer here, so I’ve been doing nothing. So, I’ve been like, ‘Let me sit down and watch his fights. I wanna watch where he throws and how he throws and his footwork.’ I know everything about him.

“I know what time he goes to bed, I know what time he wakes up, I know what side of the bed he likes, you know, sleep on. I know what he likes in the morning, breakfast, lunch, dinner. I know his weight. I know everything about this guy. I’ve studied him. There ain’t nothing about him I don’t know. I probably know more about him than his own kids do, or his wife knows about him. So, I’ve studied him.”

Barroso’s controversial loss to Romero ended a four-fight winning streak. He was previously knocked out by Uzbekistan’s Batyr Akhmedov (10-3, 9 KOs) in August 2018 and England’s Anthony Crolla (35-7-3, 13 KOs) in May 2016.

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