By Jake Donovan 

Despite being days away from their interim bantamweight title fight, Ryosuke Iwasa and Lee Haskins seem to genuinely like one another. The fighters have been extremely respectful from the moment their bout was ordered and formally announced, with the same level of courtesy extended throughout fight week.

It doesn’t mean they still don’t have every intention of tearing each other’s head off. 

Both fighters are not only predicting a knockout ending, but believe that Saturday’s fight—in Haskins’ hometown of Bristol, England—won’t last very long. 

“I've trained extremely hard for this fight and if I can't do 12 rounds at a good pace this Saturday, I'll never be able to do it,” Haskins (31-3, 13KOs) admits, though of the belief that he won’t need to test that theory. “But the fight won't go 12 rounds. Either I get knocked out or he gets knocked out. I don't see it going the distance. We both want it so bad and I want to win it in style.”

Haskins has won five straight dating back to 2013 as he heads into his first major title fight. Despite his modest knockout-to-win ratio, among his current streak exists stoppage wins over countryman Martin Ward and Belfast’s Luke Wilton. 

Still, more alarming to his supporters is the fact that all three career losses have come inside the distance. Most recent among the lot was an 8th round stoppage at the hands of Stephane Jamoye on the road in Belgium in Dec. ’12. 

That stat line is undoubtedly somewhere in the back of his opponent’s mind.

Iwasa (19-1, 12KOs) has won 11 in a row following the lone loss of his career, a 10th round stoppage at the hands of Shinsuke Yamanaka in March ’11 when both were unbeaten prospects. 

Yamanaka has since established himself as the best bantamweight in the world. Iwasa hopes to one day enjoy such status; a win on Saturday would go a long way towards at least presenting the case for a rematch somewhere down the road. 

“I don't expect to go the distance,” agreed Iwasa (19-1, 12KOs), who fights outside of Japan for the first time in his career. “I will try to knock him out in the middle rounds. That will be more entertaining for the fans.”

The interim title belt came about when reigning titlist Randy Caballero suffered an injury and thus was forced to withdraw from a planned voluntary defense versus Alberto Guevara in February. Caballero will be obligated to fight the winner of Saturday’s bout once he receives a clean bill of health and is fit to return to the ring. 

The bantamweight bout on Saturday will air live on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. Portions of the undercard will air live on Spike UK. Both networks are owned by Viacom International.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox