BIG FIGHT PREVIEW: McGowan warns Conway that he's 'going to war'

McGowan is a last-minute replacement to take on Conway, with the Northampton man's original opponent, the French boxer Souleymane Cossokho, withdrawing last weekend.

The 26-year-old from Lancashire will be going into Saturday's fight, which is part of the under card of Anthony Joshua's world title defence, off the back of the first defeat of his professional career.

McGowan was well beaten by Kahakhstan's Tursynbay Kulakhmet in a fight for the vacant WBC international title in November, but he says he is 'buzzing' to be getting back in the ring again so quickly, and that he intends to do all the running against Conway.

He also believes he has nothing to lose, and that the shackles will be off.

“I’m absolutely buzzing," McGowan told boxingscene.com

"I want to be involved in good fights, so to be in a good fight on probably the biggest show of the year is great.

"I got punched from pillar to post in my last fight with Kulakhmet. It wasn’t my night. It is what it is. Boxing and life is about being resilient.

"There's no time to moan about it, I was straight back training and now it’s time to bounce back and get a good win.

“One thing I learned from going into that Kulakhmet fight and how it all played out was that I was thinking about it too much and what the opponent was going to do.

"I don’t care about what Conway is coming with, I just worry about me. I’m going to war, that is that.

"I had all these ideas of how the fight was going to go (against Kulakhmet) and he came out totally different and better to how I expected him to.

"He didn't do what I thought he'd do. Boxing is all about learning and I’m coming back stronger and hungrier than ever."

And on the fact that he is fighting little more than five months after his most recent bout, McGowan said: "A busy fighter is a happy fighter.

"My career has always been stop-start, so to be fighting straight away, and having a tough tough 10 rounds in the bank will only help bring out the best in me.

"I will never shy away from competition. I'm coming for war and war only!"

Conway was also recently in action, seeing off Nav Mansouri at a Matchroom Boxing Fight Night in August to win the WBA Inter-Continental super welterweight title.

That belt is not up for grabs when he takes on McGowan this weekend, with the fight being shown live across the world on Sky Sports Boxing and DAZN.

The event is pay-per-view, which costs £24.95 for the seven-fight bill.