The unbeaten IBF junior welterweight champion is completely confident nonetheless that he’ll handle the dangerous Mexican contender with virtual ease February 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Hitchins hopes to deliver a message to the other junior welterweights on “The Ring: High Stakes” card by dominating Duarte (30-2-1, 23 KOs) in a manner that his opponent hasn’t experienced during his 12-year career.

Duarte defeated Kenneth Sims by majority decision in his most recent appearance, a WBA elimination match August 2 in Chicago. Brooklyn’s Hitchins (20-0, 8 KOs) feels he operates on a level above Sims (22-3-1, 8 KOs), who lost by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 114-114.

“Tough fight,” Hitchins told The Ring about Duarte. “He’s gonna be rugged. He’s trained by one of the best trainers in the sport of boxing, which is Robert Garcia. I know they’re coming up with a game plan to defeat me. I’m coming up with a game plan to defeat them, and I feel like I should put on a dominant performance and I’m looking forward to it.”

This card will include two junior welterweight bouts before Hitchins makes his second title defense in the co-feature.

Gary Antuanne Russell (18-1, 17 KOs), of Capitol Heights, Maryland, is set to defend his WBA crown versus Japan’s Andy Hiraoka (24-0, 19 KOs) on the Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia undercard. Detroit native Frank Martin (19-1, 13 KOs) will also square off against Nahir Albright (17-2, 7 KOs), of Sicklerville, New Jersey, in a 10-round bout.

If Russell handles his business, Hitchins would welcome a title unification fight with him in his following fight.

“Gary Russell, he been calling for a unification,” Hitchins said, “other champions been calling for unification, so I feel after this we’ll definitely try to get a unification fight. [WBC champ] Dalton Smith is the No. 1 guy in The Ring magazine [rankings]. Maybe we can get that fight.

“That card is gonna be stacked because all of us is in the same division. We’re all gonna be looking to top each other’s performances. But I’m the lucky one. I get to see what everybody [does]. And then after that, I’m the co-main, so I get to go out there and get that extra chip on my shoulder, to go out there and put on a spectacular performance.”

Hitchins, a 5-1 favorite according to DraftKings, is The Ring’s No. 2 contender for newly crowned champ Shakur Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs), who also won the WBO belt from Teofimo Lopez (22-2, 13 KOs) on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Russell is ranked fifth, five spots atop Hiraoka.