By Keith Idec

Frank Warren wants unimpressed Mexican and American fight fans to understand that Canelo Alvarez is in for a real fight Saturday night.

The British promoter believes the 28-year-old Smith, though mostly unknown outside the United Kingdom, has everything it takes to pull off what would be considered a huge upset at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (HBO Pay-Per-View; $64.99 in HD; 9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT).

Winning would make Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) an instant star and enable him to keep the WBO super welterweight title that helped him land the biggest fight of his eight-year pro career.

“It might not mean nothing to you, but I think it means something to Liam,” Warren said of Smith’s WBO title during a recent conference call. “He’s very proud of being a world champion, and he’s going there to defend his title. Obviously he has value as a world [champion]. That's why he's fighting Canelo. But the bottom line, as he said earlier, as far as going to the States, if you ask anybody in all the gyms that he’s worked with out there, or all the guys he's sparred there, they’ll tell you how good he is. He’s a good fighter.”

Warren is optimistic about this trans-Atlantic trip to meet Mexico’s Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs), especially since Warren has had success with other underdogs who’ve won fights in the United States.

“I’ve been involved with lots of fighters over the years,” Warren said. “Lots of fighters out in the States. A lot of fighters I’ve been involved with considered no-hopers against great American fighters or were to be great American fighters at the time, and a lot of my guys have won those fights. And I feel confident in Liam that he can emulate what they’ve done, and we'll be talking afterwards about when is Liam going to be fighting Golovkin because that’s what they’re going to be talking about after this fight.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.