He's headed for a first UK trip since his amateur days in 2017, facing Ben Whittaker (12-0-1, 9 KOs) at Birmingham's Utilita Arena for the right to challenge reigning champion Dmitry Bivol (25-1, 12 KOs) next.

It's unclear if Ring and unified beltholder Bivol will satisfy his trio of mandatory challengers, or relinquish more world titles, given how long it has taken to settle a date with WBO interim beltholder Callum Smith (31-2, 22 KOs).

The sanctioning body extended their final deadline to August 14 earlier this week, otherwise an Aug. 20 purse bid will be called.

Speaking on DAZN's broadcast of Teremoana Jr's second-round stoppage of DeAndre Savage on Wednesday, the 30-year-old contender spoke with eager anticipation knowing he's just weeks away from headlining his own event.

"Sitting here gives me itchy knuckles. Did some rounds of sparring before I came to the fights, there's a real fight feel, everyone knows I love to fight and it's gonna be great."

When asked how camp has been going, while watching a segment from his 12-round split decision over Jerome Pampellone this time two years ago, Wallace (17-1, 12 KOs) looked back fondly.

"That was actually an IBF eliminator as well and I got the win, do the same with this next one and that's what we want. Camp's been going well, just come back [to Australia] after a couple of really hard few weeks in Thailand, now focusing on sparring here."

Asked by IBF junior bantamweight world champion Andrew Moloney on how he'll get sparring to mimic someone with Whittaker's flashy style:

"We're quite lucky with the guys we've got, we're bringing in some other guys too, we're working on a gameplan and coming to spoil the party, I'm telling you."

Matchroom posted a teaser video on their social media platforms early Friday morning with Wallace warning the rising star against showboating when they meet in seven weeks' time.