That dream will come to fruition Saturday night when he faces fellow unbeaten welterweight Christopher Guerrero in a 10-round bout on the Abdullah Mason-Albert Bell undercard at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. With Johnson and Guerrero both seeking to take the next step in their careers, the Cleveland native believes he’ll prove that there’s a significant talent gap between them.

“He’s my first undefeated fighter,” Johnson told The Ring. “It’s a homecoming fight on top of that, so he’s going to try to come and do his best. This is a fight that I’m definitely not taking lightly. Every fight I take like it’s my last. I’m coming to hurt someone … There’s nothing that I haven’t seen before. I feel like I’m just a different fighter. I’m going to show him that we’re on two completely different levels.”

The card, which also features WBC featherweight champion Bruce Carrington’s first title defense against Rene Palacios, will be streamed by DAZN globally and televised by TNT in the United States (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT).

Johnson (17-0, 8 KOs) is coming off one of his most impressive performances, a fourth-round stoppage of Nicklaus Flaz (15-3, 10 KOs) in November. He soundly outboxed Flaz, dropped him in the final seconds of the third and fourth rounds with blistering right hands, and forced referee Michael DeJesus to stop their fight.

Johnson, 27, represented the U.S. at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He is ranked No. 9 by the WBO and No. 14 by the IBF at welterweight.

“I feel like the welterweight division is stacked,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of fighters in the welterweight division, and I think it’s a lot of great fights to make. I’m trying to be in the mix. I’m trying to be involved in all the big fights in the welterweight division, and I want to come for all the belts.”

The 25-year-old Guerrero (16-0, 9 KOs) will make his U.S. debut.

The Mexican-born, Montreal-based Guerrero is coming off a unanimous-decision victory over Williams Andres Herrera in October. Guerrero has fought 14 of his 16 fights in Canada, with his other two coming in Mexico.

“It’s gonna be a movie,” Johnson said. “There’s gonna be fireworks. I’m coming for the kill. I ain’t playing no games on July 4. I’ve been working my ass off. I’m focused. I’m locked in. It’s gonna be a way better performance than my last fight.”