The 34-year-old boxer will face the IBF champion at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday (21.09.24) night and he insisted it takes more than just being in good shape to be a winner.

He told Boxing News magazine: “Let me tell you, this is the thing with fighting; it takes more than being strong to be a champion and to be a complete fighter.

“It’s good of course, but I truly believe from what I’ve studied read and what great people who have come before me have said – it takes more than being a physical specimen.

“It’s a good attribute, but when you come across someone who is willing to take that from you, you’ve given them your best shot and they are able to take it, that’s when you figure out what it takes to be a champion.

“That’s what I’ve done. I’ve been to the well.

“He’s fighting someone who is willing to die in there, who wants to give it everything to be victorious.”

And AJ insisted that Daniel – who was signed up by Frank Warren after just seven amateur bouts – “owes [him] nothing”, despite claims it was his own performance at the 2012 Olympics that led to a resurgence in British boxing.

He said: “No. He owes me nothing… Actually, the only thing he owes me is a punch and that’s it.

“I don’t want anything else from him. I don’t want his respect or anything else. I have to earn it if I want it.”