Ryan Walsh says he will make Reece Mould eat his words when the two clash in the ring on Friday night.

The Cromer fighter admits he was ‘baffled’ when Mould told him, face to face, that he would become the first man to stop him.

“You’re going to get the best version of me on Friday,” said Walsh. “And I know we'll get the best version of Reece, because he has to. He’s opened his mouth and he's going to definitely regret those words.

“He said, ‘I think I'll stop you, I think I'll knock you out’. I was just baffled.

“He’s got two gym mates, one’s world class one’s a world champion - neither of them would have ever said that. They wouldn't have believed it - and he didn't believe it.

“I don’t know why he said it but he's going to regret it, he’s definitely going to regret it because it's just easier said than done. Come and do it, come and try to knock me out.

“A couple of people have said they'd come and have a go – but he will do what they all do.”

Walsh points to three other fighters whose pre-fight ambitions have been silenced in the ring.

“Every time this has happened in my career – Darren Traynor, James Tennyson and Hairon Socarras - they all got knocked out. I’ve never been dropped, never been stopped, rarely got wobbled. I've been clipped a couple of times in the ring, but no one would even know. I hold a punch really well. I don't really get many clear whacks so if he can clearly whack me, fair play to him.

“The beauty in this fight for me is he's never fought anyone like me. I've got three fighters like him and all of them got knocked out, all three of them and all three I'd say are better than him. Tennyson's the most accomplished and he lasted five rounds with that attitude that he was going to knock me out.”

Walsh, 38, has 28 wins, four defeats and two draws on his record while 29-year-old Mould has 18 wins and two defeats. At stake in Sheffield is the new WBA Continental Europa lightweight title – a bauble Walsh insists will find a future residence in Norfolk.

There is an obvious age difference, but the man from Cromer believes a career in which he has never been stopped, never been badly beaten, and has become a master of the art of defence, makes that academic.

“He wants to play on it, but that's down to him to try and make it a factor,” said Walsh. “I don't know if anyone gets as much joy as I do in boxing, of making someone miss when they're really trying to land. It's one of my favourite things. When people are really trying to punch my head in, I get such a big thing out of looking at another man and he's swinging it and then I hit him. It must be demoralising. I can’t say I've had it myself in the ring where I'm really trying to hit someone and I’m missing, because I'm quite accurate.

“I'm the better fighter, I'm the better boxer. And I like to think I'm a box fighter. I really do enjoy making people miss.

“When I am focused I'm very difficult to hit. I've got a very scientific mind and I believe that you shouldn’t be easy to hit. This is a sport where your faculties are on the line.