Ramon Cardenas refuses to be overawed by Naoya Inoue ahead of their fight on May 4.

Inoue is widely-heralded as one of the best fighters in the world and is 29-0 (26 KOs). He, along with Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk, are viewed as the sport’s three best fighters, and the odds are not in the favor of Cardenas ahead of the contest at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

For Cardenas, Inoue is the second undefeated fighter he has faced in a row having beaten 20-0 (8 KOs) Bryan Acosta last time out.

After the Acosta fight, which Cardenas climbed off the floor to win in February in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, he was not sure what might come his way, but he did not think it would be the Japanese star. It seemed like Inoue would fight David Picasso.

“I didn’t expect it honestly, because I thought he already had his fight already lined up, so I kind of was still just waiting, waiting and seeing,” admitted Cardenas. “My mentality was just to keep fighting and winning and basically wait my time”.

Cardenas had not fought in almost a year, and he knew he would have his handful with the Mexican Acosta.

“It was tough, he was a tough fighter,” Cardenas said. “After 10 months off, I took a fight against a 20-0 guy, and I say to everyone, to get to 20-0 is kinda hard, you have to know how to fight.”

With the victory, Cardenas improved to 26-1 (14 KOs). His lone loss came to Danny Flores back in 2017, a majority decision defeat over 10 rounds, but he believes he has been written off before and he anticipates being written off again when he challenges the undisputed junior featherweight champion.

“For sure,” he said. “For me, it’s more like I’ve been here before, maybe not on this scale, where I go into a fight people are expecting to lose, and then I pull something out of my hat where people are like, ‘Oh, shit.’ I think this fight will be the same thing, especially going for all the marbles on this one, man, going for all the chips. And I don’t plan on letting my opportunity go to waste.”

And against one of boxing’s premier athletes and punchers, Cardenas – who is rated No. 2 by the WBA, No. 7 by the IBF and No. 10 by the WBO – is expecting to be at his peak, raising his game against the best opponent he has faced. 

“I think for me it’s always been you’re as good as your last fight,” he said. “It’s like anything, you’re only as good as your last performance. I think this fight will show that as well, because I’m the type of guy that, it’s funny to say, but I fight to my competition. Sometimes the competition’s not that good. But the better the competition, the better I fight, and so I think that's how I’ll go with this fight.”

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.