Big interview: Wolverhampton boxing star Gully Powar ready to step out of the shadows - live on the BBC

That’s certainly the plan for Gully Powar on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old from Whitmore Reans faces Rhys Edwards in Cardiff for the British featherweight title, promising to show why he has been one of the best kept secrets in boxing.

“I’ve been working hard in the shadows, waiting for this moment,” he says. “After Saturday, everyone is going to know who I am.”

The confidence is not Powar’s alone. It is also shared by Richard Carter, his long-time coach at Wolverhampton Boxing Club, who believes the British public will be “fascinated” by what his fighter will show in the ring.

“This will be the start of something, I really believe that,” he declares.

It’s already been a long road to this point. In truth, it is a road Powar initially had no desire to travel after getting his first taste of boxing at the age of just nine.

“I didn’t enjoy it at all, getting punched in the face, all of that,” he smiles. “It was my dad who took me down to the club and I remember begging him afterward not to take me back.

“But the more I went, the more I started to improve, the more I started to enjoy it.”

From fearful to fearless, Powar’s journey through the amateur ranks includes the incredible story of him fighting - and winning - with a broken arm.

“We were in the changing room about 10 minutes before the fight and Gully said: ‘I’ve got something to tell you’,” recalls Carter.

“He told me he’d broken his arm during the week and then added: ‘Don’t worry, it’s hurting me a little bit - but it will be OK!’.

“We gave him some paracetamol and he went out and beat the kid with one arm.

“That’s the type of heart he has got. He wouldn’t say anything about his arm to us before the last moment because he knew we would pull him out.”

It is a heart which has been tested through a career in which, until now, Powar and his team believe he has been unfairly overlooked.

In the amateur days, that was often due to an all-action style which saw him avoided or, at other times, fail to win the favour of the judges.

“He was never really suited to the amateurs,” says Carter. “There it’s all about staying in your shape and picking your shots, whereas Gully is on the front foot all the time.

“In 2022 he reached the semi-finals of the elites and had a terrible decision go against him.

“His opponent ended up with a broken rib and couldn’t contest the final. That tells you how the fight went.

“At that stage, we started to get a little bit despondent. He should have won the championships that year.

“The pro game was always going to be better for him and when the British public click into him and watch him on the BBC, they will be fascinated.

“He has a style like no-one else. He’ll take one to give one but always gets the job done. He starts off at a pace no professional likes.”

Even in the paid ranks it was, initially, slow going for Powar, who did not face an opponent with a winning record through the first 11 fights of his pro career, all of which took place in the Midlands.

Yet what he now describes as the “calculated gamble” of entering last year’s WBC Grand Prix tournament in Saudi Arabia paid-off big time.

Powar stunned USA prospect Japhethlee Llamido in the opening round and then earned wide acclaim for his performance - albeit in defeat - against the eventual champion, Mexico’s Brandon Mosqueda.

That led directly to him being paired against Edwards for the vacant British title.

“We took a gamble, going to Saudi but we were always confident because I’ve sparred people at the top level,” he says. “I have the belief I am better than these top fighters.

“The first fight over there against Llamido, I was a huge underdog.

“When I beat him, everyone was shocked. That is the way it is going to be on Saturday.

“People might look at the records and think Rhys Edwards has had more fights and has more pedigree but it is not true.

“I’ve been working my backside off for the past five years, waiting for this.”

There can be no doubting Powar’s dedication. A former student at Aldersley High school, he worked as a coach for the InPower academy, teaching boxing to kids in school and was halfway through his training to become a firefighter, before deciding to put the focus full-time on his sport.

“I really enjoyed working with the kids but that and the firefighting course were taking up so much time which I needed to dedicate to boxing,” he says.

“It’s a shame because I think I would have made a good firefighter, being athletic and all that.

“It wasn’t an easy decision and it meant I had to go broke for a period.

“But if you really want something, you have to make sacrifices.”

What’s also clear, in addition to Powar’s dedication, is how much he relishes being the underdog.

When we meet, he is wearing a T-Shirt with the picture of his boxing hero, former Mexican world champion Salvador Sanchez.

Powar, a self-confessed “boxing historian”, proceeds to tell the story of how Sanchez shocked Danny Lopez to win the WBC title in 1980.

“He went into that fight with no-one giving him a chance and won. That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” says Powar.

Whether the odds on him beating Edwards are quite as long as they were for Sanchez is uncertain - yet there is no doubt he is considered the outsider by many observers.

What’s guaranteed is almost the entire 5,000-strong crowd inside Cardiff International Arena will be against him when he faces the Welshman.

The bout against Edwards is chief support to another Welsh boxing hero, Lauren Price, who takes on Stephanie Pineiro for the world welterweight title.

“I’m not bothered about people booing me and stuff. I am going to enjoy it,” says Powar. “Everyone is going to see what I am made of.”

Concerns over the distance - Powar has only once been past six rounds and never beyond eight in his 14-fight professional career - have been eased against tough sparring rounds with the likes of former world title challenger Nick Ball and Liam Davies, the latter of whom became European champion last weekend.

Edwards might have the greater experience but it is Powar who truly believes he is the stronger man.

“It’s going to be like Roberto Duran against Sugar Ray Leonard,” he says, selecting another moment from boxing’s glorious past.

“Leonard was the golden boy but Duran beat him. That is exactly how it is going to be on Saturday. I’m not going to allow him (Edwards) to breathe.”

They are confident words but Powar is by no means cocky.

On the contrary, he remains grounded, taking the trip to Smethwick Gurdwara every Sunday to train youngsters in his spare time.

Should he win on Saturday, he will become the only the second Sikh British champion and the first since Harry Dhami held the welterweight crown 25 years ago.

“Faith and religion is very important to me,” he says. “I want to inspire the Sikh community. I want to build a legacy, like Manny Pacquiao did for the Philippines, like Salvador Sanchez did for Mexico.

“I want to be the face of Sikh boxing, bring it back to our community.”

It’s another ambition of this most engaging of characters of whom, until now, no-one has known much about.

That won’t be the case for much longer, should everything go to plan on Saturday night.

“He’s gone under the radar to this point but in my eyes he is at least as good, or better, than some of the guys who are now boxing for GB,” says Carter.

“But when everything is stacked against you and you pull it out of the fire, it will feel even better. Come Saturday night, everyone is going to be talking about him.”