By Jake Donovan

From the moment he was granted the opportunity to fight for a title, Badou Jack has left nothing to chance. The 6’1” super middleweight generally has to work hard to squeeze into a super middleweight uniform, but has picked up the intensity considerably in preparation for his April 24 showdown with unbeaten Anthony Dirrell at UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois.

The bout headlines on Spike TV, the network’s second offering of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series. Jack is the outside fighter in the promotion, as he fights under the Mayweather Promotions banner while Dirrell is a proud member of the PBC movement.

How each fighter made it to this point is less important than what they are going to do now that they’ve arrived. Jack insists he’s ready for that moment.

“He's in for the toughest fight of his career,” promises Jack (18-1-1, 12KOs), who enters his first title fight after having rebounded from the lone loss of his career last February. “I'm going to give it my all. I'm not going to let this opportunity go. I'm in the best shape of my life.”

Jack was on the path towards title contention before suffering a shocking 1st round knockout loss to Derek Edwards last year. The Swedish transplant – now living in and fighting out of Las Vegas – has since won two straight, including a 6th round stoppage of Francisco Sierra last December.

The title fight with Dirrell (27-0-1, 22KOs) comes eight days before Jack’s promoter and mentor, Floyd Mayweather heads into a certain big event of his own as he faces Manny Pacquiao on May 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Part of the fight week festivities include local cards next Thursday and Friday, with Thursday’s show featuring several fighters from Mayweather Promotions and airing live on ESPN2 in a special edition outside of its Friday Night Fights series.

“It’s going to be a great stretch for Mayweather Promotions, that's how we do,” Jack promises. “I will win to get things started. Floyd will take care of Manny next week. We have the rest of the team (including Ishe Smith and Ashley Theophane in separate fights) fighting Thursday night. It's going to be a big week for us.”

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