Bektemir Melikuziev has rebuilt himself into a credible contender in the super middleweight division since Gabe Rosado shockingly knocked him out almost four years ago.

The strong southpaw from Uzbekistan takes an eight-fight winning streak into his 10-round fight Friday night against undefeated Darius Fulghum. DAZN will stream Melikuziev-Fulghum as the main event of a Golden Boy Promotions card from Virgin Hotels Las Vegas (9 p.m. ET; 2 a.m. GMT).

Houston’s Fulghum (14-0, 12 KOs) has pressed Oscar De La Hoya and his team to secure this high-stakes fight for quite some time. The motivated Melikuziev (15-1, 10 KOs) assured Fulghum he made a matchmaking mistake in choosing a fearless fighter still hellbent on proving his loss to Rosado was a fluke.

"Darius is a great boxer," Melikuziev stated during the "Camp House" series streamed on Golden Boy's YouTube channel. "But there is no person at 168 who can take my power."

Another fringe American contender, David Stevens, took Melikuziev’s power in their Nov. 2 bout at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

Melikuziev won their 10-round bout by split decision, but only because judge Chris Migliore's scorecard. He scored it 116-112 for Stevens, far differently than Dave Moretti and Zachary Young, both of whom favored Melikuziev 118-110 and 117-111.

Unlike Fulghum, Stevens had a loss on his record, a first-round knockout defeat to Joeshon James (then 7-0-2), when he met Melikuziev. Fulghum is unbeaten but unproven in Melikuziev’s mind, the type of opponent he must impressively beat if the 2016 Olympic silver medalist is to eventually secure a super middleweight world title shot.

"I don’t like to talk too much," Melikuziev said. "But with the fights like this, I can show my skills to all the people and show that I'm at [the] elite level, that I can produce the great, exciting fights for the crowd, and that's what I wanna do. In this weight class, I haven't yet showed my best. And May 30, I will show the best of 'Bek The Bully.'”

While uncertain of what to make of Fulghum, Melikuziev's catastrophic defeat to Rosado rather painfully taught him an invaluable lesson. He avenged his loss to Philadelphia’s Rosado (26-17-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC) via unanimous decision in their 10-round rematch in April 2023, but he will approach Fulghum respectfully.

"At this level, every single opponent is dangerous," Melikuziev said. "One punch changes everything, so you can plan, you can think about something. But once it gets to the fight, things can go absolutely differently."