The 31-year-old will get his opportunity to advance those claims when facing Tsendbaatar Erdenebat on Friday during a ProBox show at the County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas.

"I believe it is going to be a good technical fight between us, we are both elusive and good on our feet," Yaqubov (23-1-1, 12 KOs) told The Ring. "Both in the top 10 of the WBC ratings at junior lightweight, I feel more suited to an opponent with a southpaw stance like mine."

The Tajikistan-born fighter hasn't fought for a year. He was originally slated to face Erdenebat in May before sustaining an injury while sparring with former IBF 130-pound titlist Joseph Diaz.

"It was a setback, but I'm now fully recovered after taking three months off to heal. I'm ready to get that win," he said.

Yaqubov has returned to Freddie Roach at the Wildcard boxing club in Hollywood for this fight and is comfortably leaving the tactics with his Hall of Fame trainer.

"Freddie is a smart trainer and has worked with me in the past," he said. "I don't spend much time studying my opponents. I leave that up to my team and what the game plan they're working on will be. Let's see during the fight what he brings, I'm only focusing on victory."

Yaqubov turned professional in 2015 and remained unbeaten before suffering a 12-round decision defeat by O'Shaquie Foster in March 2022. It's a result that has aged well, four years later. Since then, Yaqubov has steadily rebounded with a five-fight winning streak Cristian Chacon ended in their 10-round split draw 12 months ago.

Meanwhile, the Texan has gone from strength to strength. He outpointed then-unified beltholder Emanuel Navarrete, adding the IBF, WBO and vacant Ring title to his WBC junior lightweight crown on October 24.

"It's every boxer's goal to become a world champion and more importantly, I want to avenge my loss to O'Shaquie Foster one day. He's the only loss on my record in a close 12-round fight."

Yaqubov led in the early going but Foster took control down the stretch, including a 12th-round knockdown, to ensure a wide win (117-110, 117-110, 118-109) on the scorecards.

Erdenebat (15-0, 6 KOs) represented Mongolia at the 2016 Olympics, won bronze at the 2019 world championships having turned professional the previous September. Since then, the 30-year-old has scored 10-round decision wins over Frency Fortunato, Abraham Montoya and most recently Cobia Breedy on May 1.

Writer's view: Yaqubov-Erdenebat is a well matched fight and one you'd expect to play out the same way on the night. That being said, it's not ideal that Yaqubov hasn't boxed for a year while Erdenebat is in good form, making him the slight pre-fight favorite.