When David Avanesyan ended the unbeaten run of former Olympian Josh Kelly in a six-round thriller last year, many thought it would be the launchpad for bigger things.

In many ways it has been, but it’s not taken him to the top of boxing’s food chain with the immediacy some predicted. He bossed brave but outgunned Liam Taylor in his last fight, in October, stopping Taylor in two sessions and this weekend, at Wembley Arena in London, Avanesyan defends his European welterweight title against 15-0 (5) Finn Oskari Metz and even the champion’s trainer, Carl Greaves, admits doing homework on the little-known visitor has been tricky.

Greaves is well-connected, a former pro who has trained, managed, promoted and worked as a matchmaker, but he’s struggled to find much out about Metz.

“It’s a little bit of an unknown, really,” Greaves admitted. “There’s only one video of him on YouTube from some years ago, seeing him bash up some Latvian, [but] I managed to get the [Michal] Syrowatka fight [w pts 8], so I’ve had a good look at that, and that’s not a bad win. “Syrowatka [then 22-3] from Poland, he’s not bad, but on paper it’s a routine defence [for Avanesyan] but this guy is 15-0, unbeaten, he’s got his ambition still, he’s fresh, I don’t think he had much of an amateur career so we don’t know how good he is because we don’t know a lot about him.”

Team Avanesyan thought the Kelly win, that gave them a high ranking with the WBC, was going to lead to a fascinating clash with Vergil Ortiz, but Ortiz went elsewhere and was due to face Michael McKinson this weekend before falling ill. But Greaves said Avanesyan has prepared the same way regardless of who he faces.

“He’s the ultimate professional,” Carl continued. “We don’t cut any corners no matter who we fight. We always prepare for a tough fight. Obviously David doesn’t overlook anybody and we’re building towards a world title fight. He’s the WBC No. 2, Vergil Ortiz was ordered and he went a different route and he was meant to be fighting McKinson this weekend and that’s fell out of bed now so we’ve got to make do.”

Avanesyan is one of the division’s dangermen. He’s 28-3-1 and represents high risk-low reward for anyone willing to face him, but ultimately Greaves feels his man can force his way in to the title picture by staying busy.

“All David wants is activity,” Greaves went on. “He’s not really bothered who he fights as long as he’s active. Don’t get me wrong, he wants to push on for a world title fight but if that can’t be done, it’s better than him being on the side-lines and having fights rather than none at all and just sitting and waiting for something to happen. It’s good he’s got a fight because it’s keeping his name out there ready for when this WBC final eliminator does get ordered. If Vergil Ortiz goes in a different route, they should be ordering someone else. “Keith Thurman is No. 3, so I’m sure it should be him, but you don’t know what’s happening at this sort of level.”

Can Avanesyan compete with the very best at 147lbs?

“I definitely think he can beat Thurman,” added the Newark trainer. “When it comes to the top of the tree, like [Errol] Spence and [Terence] Crawford, they’re a different level [from the others] in my opinion. David has learned from his mistakes and he lost to [Lamont] Peterson and lost to [Egidijus] Kavaliauskas and he’s come back with a bang and on fire. Spence and Crawford are red hot and they’d be a tough task but we’d give it everything we’ve got and see what happened.”

Greaves has a vision of what he hopes Avanesyan will do this year, but he’s unsure whether boxing’s political landscape will allow it to come to fruition.

“Ideally we win this one, have the WBC final eliminator next and then fight for a world title by the end of the year,” Greaves surmised. “That’s the idea, that would be a great plan. Whether or not it’s going to happen, I don’t know. You’ve got [Yordenis] Ugas v Spence and it would be nice to get the winner of them once we sort the final eliminator out. But you don’t know, we were ready for Ortiz and he took a different route so it’s very frustrating.”

Greaves still holds many roles in boxing. The Avanesyan-Kelly fight was on Sky Sports, and subsequently Kelly has moved with Wasserman to Channel 5 and Avanesyan has linked up with BT Sport. Greaves trains Avanesyan, and will be in the corner for the BT show this weekend, but the following week he’s back at Wembley as a matchmaker for Sky Sports.

“Not a lot,” he said, when asked whether anybody had said anything to him about Avanesyan’s move from Sky to BT. “Obviously my role as a trainer is a little bit different to my role as a matchmaker with Sky, so it is what it is. I’m a trainer with David and he’s signed with BT and next week I’ll be back at the same venue as a matchmaker for Sky, so it’s a little bit strange but no one’s said anything.”