Kieron Conway has spent weeks listening to George Liddard talking about how and why he will relieve him of his British and Commonwealth middleweight titles, but he believes reality will soon begin to set in for the younger man.

On October 17, Conway (23-3-1, 7 KOs) will defend his belts against the confident Liddard (12-0, 7 KOs). DAZN will broadcast the event from London’s York Hall.

Conway has been in Liddard's position.

It is more than six years since he stepped in to challenge then-British junior middleweight champion Ted Cheeseman, as an inexperienced 23 year-old. Apart from a cursory three-round defeat in the semifinal of a one night "Ultimate Boxer" tournament, Conway was unbeaten in 12 fights. He earned a creditable draw.

Liddard is also 23, but that is where the similarities end.

A tall, composed boxer, the low-profile Conway was relatively unknown when his first major opportunity arrived.

The bold, heavy-handed Liddard has been groomed as a potential star of the Matchroom stable since the start of his career and is bouncing into the fight on a wave of self confidence.

"I would say that potentially we're different people in that sort of sense. I think that he's very arrogant and his view on this fight may be different to when I fought Cheeseman back then," Conway told The Ring.

"I don't really remember too much about how I felt. I just thought I was going there and was just going to go collect a win. I didn't feel that there was any pressure on me or anything.

"I think I was a bit immature. I just kind of went along with it but I think George will be a little bit different.

"I think he'll be a bit more calculated but definitely at that age you overestimate yourself so that might be a shortfalling on his side."

Since boxing Cheeseman, Conway’s career has taken him in some weird and wonderful directions.

He has boxed on two Canelo Alvarez cards — losing to Souleymane Cissokho in May 2021 and to Austin Williams in September 2022 — and appeared regularly on Matchroom's arena shows.

He is undefeated since dropping a 10-round decision to Williams and didn’t allow those top-level losses to put a ceiling on his ambitions. In May, he produced arguably the most dominant, complete performance of his career to stop Gerome Warburton in four rounds and win the British title.

Liddard is speaking with the confidence of an unbeaten fighter, but although he has shown some signs of real quality, hasn’t faced an experienced, championship-calibre operator like Conway.

Still, the fact his team have deliberately guided him down this route is a clear indication of the amount of faith they have in him.

Conway isn't the type to talk trash but has performed on far bigger stages than this and shared the ring with more accomplished fighters than Liddard.

He believes that as the first bell gets closer, the size of the task will begin to dawn on him.

"I think that all the things that he says and does now, when it comes to the fight week and we're in the same vicinity, it gets closer to the time, then things are going to start hitting home a little bit," Conway said.

"The things he has said and done, he's gotta then stand on those. He's got to then understand that I am the more experienced, I do know what this is like.

"I don't think he's going to really realise what it's like to be fighting for 12 rounds — potentially 12 rounds — especially with someone that's quite a bit bigger, quite a bit more self-aware.

"I think those things are going to be in the back of his mind for a while."