The 31-year-old Uzbek has long been tipped as a future world champion but his professional career has been a strange one thus far.

This month brings up eight years since the gifted, hard-punching southpaw made his debut in the paid ranks but he has since boxed just 16 times as a pro. By comparison, Moses Itauma turned over five years later and is already 14-0. Despite his obvious pedigree, Jalolov has also boxed nobody anywhere near the heavyweight top 50.

His slow progress has been down to his insistence on taking advantage of the rule allowing him to compete as an amateur at the Olympic Games. Since his professional debut, Jalolov has claimed gold at Tokyo 2020 and in Paris 2024.

As it stands, he is one of only two Olympic super-heavyweight gold medalists who have not boxed for a professional world title.

On Saturday night, on the undercard of the event headlined by Fabio Wardley's world title defense against Daniel Dubois, "The Big Uzbek" makes his debut under the Queensberry Promotions banner as part of a co-promotional deal with Top Rank, similar to the one American heavyweight hopeful Jared Anderson has recently agreed.

Jalolov faces 6ft 6in fellow southpaw Agron Smakici (21-3, 19 KOs) in what is amazingly the hardest fight of his career to date. Smakici was stopped in one by Zhan Kossobutskiy and three by Agit Kabayel so a similarly emphatic victory will act as a statement of intent from Jalolov.

So what was the thinking behind Queensberry signing him? Warren was keeping his cards close to his chest.

"He's a good fighter and got a good record," the Hall of Fame promoter said. "He fits in with us because he is part of the jigsaw. He is part of what we're doing, which is making these fights happen."

A few years back, many would have predicted that it would be Jalolov topping bills as world heavyweight champion. Although he has come nowhere near to doing so yet, he is still considered by many as the bogeyman waiting in the wings.

At 31, he is still young in heavyweight terms and despite a lack of top level action, he is ranked inside the top 10 by the WBO and the IBF.

For Queensberry, who have Wardley, Dubois, Kabayel, Itauma, Filip Hrgovic, Tony Yoka, Lawrence Okolie and a plethora of other heavyweights under contract, getting involved with a man of Jalolov's calibre is a shrewd move.

"We want to deliver the best fights and no one's getting any knockovers here," Warren added. "It's not happening. This is the best fighting the best, that's what we're doing."