Sandor Martin doesn’t pretend to know why his name was chosen this weekend.

Few people in the industry give the 28-year-old southpaw from Barcelona any chance of getting past former four-division titlist Mikey Garcia in their catchweight bout this weekend. BetMGM sportsbook has Garcia (40-1, 30KOs) as a -2000 favorite to prevail this Saturday on DAZN from Chukchansi Park in Fresno, while Martin enters as a +900 underdog to pull off the massive upset in his U.S. debut.

None of that is lost on the reigning European junior welterweight titlist, who willingly abandoned previously scheduled plans with aspirations of shocking the world.

“He made a mistake the moment he chose me as an opponent,” Martin said of Garcia calling his name for this weekend’s fight, which will be contested at a maximum weight of 145 pounds. “After this fight, I will get the big fights. I’m going to steal his future plans, get all those fights he’s planning to make.”

Garcia was originally in talks to face fellow former titlist Regis Prograis (26-1, 22KOs), only for budget and promotional constraints to nix those plans. From there, the attention turned to others in and around the welterweight division before settling on Martin (38-2, 13KOs), who has won nine straight but takes a considerable step up in competition level.

Martin was previously scheduled to fight September 11 in his Barcelona hometown before dropping out of the show in accepting this opportunity. The change in plans leaves only a five-week delay in returning to the ring, having last fought in April where he outpointed Kay Prospere in the second defense of his European title at junior welterweight.

Garcia has not fought since a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Jessie Vargas last February. The battle of former titlists came 50 weeks after suffering his lone career defeat in a twelve-round shutout to unbeaten welterweight champ Errol Spence in March 2019. All told, Garcia has only fought twice since July 2018 although intangibles alone don’t figure to play much of a factor in this Saturday’s DAZN headliner.

That line of thinking is fine with Martin, who can only surpass anyone’s expectations of his chances in this fight.

“I’m the one traveling here. I have nothing to lose, he has everything to lose,” notes Martin, who has only fought twice outside of Spain and never before outside of Europe. “Honestly, I’m very calm about the fight this Saturday. I’m confident that I will be victorious this weekend.

“He is really putting his future at risk with this fight. I’m 28 and in my prime. He’s 33. His time is running out. I was born with boxing in my blood. I’m 40 fights into my career, 38 wins. Winning is in my DNA.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox