DANNY Bharj believes he will be much more relaxed when he steps between the ropes on Saturday night for his second professional fight.

The 27-year-old faces Ibrar Riyaz at the GL1 Leisure Centre looking to add to his debut win in February.

The former England and Walcot star admits that when he made his bow against Dean Evans he was under a lot pressure.

But having stepped up in weight, Bharj will now be competing as a light-welterweight instead of lightweight, he is feeling much happier.

“Last time out I was a lightweight. I lost way too much weight for that fight,” Bharj said. “When I started training for that I was 160 pounds coming down to 135, it was crazy.

“The opponent had sold tickets, my fans were there and there was lot of pressure on me.

“This fight it is a lot more relaxed and everything is organised, I’m boxing at 140 now which I make pretty comfortable – there is not a lot to go now.”

Having made his debut over six two-minute rounds, Bharj will face Riyaz, a durable veteran of 93 contests, over four three-minute rounds.

The former ABA junior champion says that he will have no problems with the longer sessions.

“The championship rounds are three (minutes) so we want to get used to doing threes,” Bharj said.

“The first one was six-twos as it was my first fight in a few years. We just wanted to stretch it out get the rust off. We have done that now.

“We are training hard, sparring six to eight threes then we will pick it up to eight and 10 threes.”

Bharj has been trained by Richard Farnan for this contest as his regular coach Islan Eltuyev was unavailable to start the camp.

Although Eltuyev is now back in the country, the former England gold medallist, like stablemate Ryan Martin, opted to finish the camp with Farnan.

“Everything is going brilliantly and I’m feeling strong,” Bharj said.

“Islan had some other things to attend to when we started this camp, so we with are with Rich for this one.

“He is here every morning and in the evenings, he is dedicated and he is putting us through our paces.”