Boxing: Hopoate confident of Vegas win

John Hopoate says fighting former world heavyweight boxing champion Oliver McCall will surpass anything he achieved in his league career.

The former NSW and Australian winger and current Australian heavyweight champion is preparing to fight 44-year-old McCall for the vacant IBA Intercontinental title in Las Vegas on May 22.

Hopoate, 34, admitted that he will never be able to totally shed his league bad-boy reputation after his suspension-littered football career. But he felt he was finally earning respect as a boxer after winning the national title from Bob Mirovic last year.

Hopoate flies out to the US on Sunday and said the looming fight would be the biggest sporting moment of his life.

"This is a single-man sport and you are by yourself where the other one [league], they were massive occasions but I had 12 other guys out there to help me out," said Hopoate.

Hopoate said as recently as six months ago he would have laughed at the idea of fighting McCall. However, he was adamant he could beat the vastly more experienced American and go on to fight for bigger titles.

He insisted he was fitter now than at any other stage of his sporting career.

Hopoate, who has a professional record of 11 wins (11 KOs) and two losses has prepared for the fight by sparring with two of Australia's other hardest-hitting heavyweights, world ranked Kali Meehan and fellow former rugby league star Solomon Haumono.

McCall rocketed to prominence by winning the WBC heavyweight title with a second-round stoppage of Britain's Lennox Lewis in 1994 in London.

After one successful defence against Larry Holmes, McCall lost the title to another Briton, Frank Bruno, and was subsequently stopped in the fifth round of his rematch with Lewis in a bout for the vacant WBC title in 1997.

McCall has a record of 51 wins (36 KOs) and nine losses.

- AAP