Trevor McCumby buzzed Caleb Plant late in the second round of his last fight and later recorded a fourth-round knockdown against the former IBF super middleweight champ.

Pushing Plant legitimized McCumby to an extent, yet the heavy-handed veteran from Glendale, Arizona, realizes he still needs to make believers out of cynics Saturday night who think he is a limited power puncher. Win, lose or draw, McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs, 1 NC) is sure he and Diego Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) will provide plenty of entertainment during a 12-round fight DAZN will stream from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

“I think it’s a great fight for me,” McCumby told The Ring. “It’s a better fight stylistically for me than even my last fight. And I’m gonna come out and really show the world my speed and my power, and that I’m not a one-dimensional fighter.”

McCumby will fight for the first time since Plant (23-3, 14 KOs) stopped him in the ninth round on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga undercard Sept. 14 in Las Vegas.

Even in defeat, McCumby’s performance made him a viable opponent for Pacheco, The Ring’s No. 2-ranked super middleweight.

Pacheco picked McCumby after the Los Angeles native and his team determined he wasn’t offered enough money to travel to Quebec, Canada, to face Montreal-based Christian Mbilli (29-0, 24 KOs) in an interim title fight. Mbilli is The Ring’s No. 1 contender to Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs), who owns The Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound crowns.

Though this bout on the Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez-Phumelela Cafu undercard represents more of an opportunity for Pacheco to stay busy than the Mbilli bout would’ve provided, the 32-year-old McCumby considers it a chance to secure the most significant fights in the 168-pound division.

“I think this fight really changes the trajectory of my whole life, and obviously my boxing career,” McCumby said. “If we have a phenomenal performance on July 19th, I think that puts us in the running for some really big fights. I would love to get in there with Canelo. I would love to get in there with Mbilli. Those are huge fights that I would love to give the fans.

“I’m all about just giving the fans great fights. That’s what they deserve and lately I feel, money-wise, some of these guys are running around the ring and not throwing punches. And people are just kind of dissatisfied with the sport, so I just wanna give great fights.”

DraftKings lists Pacheco as a huge favorite, 18-1, because the 6-foot-4 contender is widely viewed as one of the best super middleweights in boxing.

Pacheco, 24, nonetheless expects McCumby to test him in ways previously unbeaten Steven Nelson couldn’t Jan. 25 in Las Vegas. The taller, stronger Pacheco beat Nelson (20-1, 16 KOs), of Omaha, Nebraska, by the same score, 117-111, on all three cards.

“I’m gonna go out and give the fans a great fight,” McCumby said. “I’m gonna show him some boxing skills and some awkwardness that he’s never seen before. It’s different when you get in there with me. My speed is a lot more than what’s seen. It’s just different. People are really gonna see the best Trevor McCumby on July 19th.”

DAZN’s coverage of the Rodriguez-Cafu card is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday night.

Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs), of San Antonio, Texas, and South Africa’s Cafu (11-0-3, 8 KOs) will fight for the former's Ring and WBC 115-pound championships. Cafu’s WBO belt will be on the line, too. If the massively favored Rodriguez wins, he will square off against Argentina’s Fernando Martinez (18-0, 9 KOs), the WBA and former IBF champ, in another title unification fight on “The Ring IV” pay-per-view card Nov. 22 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.