THE pretender to the European and Commonwealth crowns, Michael Hunter, insists reigning champion Esham Pickering does not know what he has let himself in for tonight.

Fighting in his home town of Hartlepool. Hunter will have the backing of a partisan crowd at the Borough Hall with a triple-belt at stake.

Pickering, Newark's self-styled Brown Sugar, is ranked 13th in the world and has arrived in the North-East claiming his opponent will be taking a step up in class just by competing with him.

The 29-year-old has lost just three of his 31 bouts and has twice defended his European super-bantamweight title already, something British champion Hunter is looking to bring to an end.

Hunter, facing the biggest night of his career, has moved quickly to rubbish the suggestion that Pickering is a far superior boxer.

"I wouldn't agree that this is a step up for me, not at all," said an angry Hunter.

"He says he has been fighting better fighters than me but I would say his last three opponents are not even fit to lace my boots.

"He fought Noel Wilders in his second last fight and won on points. But he is not a step above me.

"He is older now and not the same boxer he was. Let's get this straight, Esham Pickering is on a level par with me going into this."

It was at yesterday's weigh-in, at Eddie Ellwood's gym in Hartlepool, that Pickering laid the claim that Hunter was stepping into unknown territory by his standards.

And the Brendan Ingle-managed fighter is not deterred by the prospect of heading into a hostile environment at the Borough Hall to try to defend his titles for a third time.

Pickering points to the way he went to Madrid in June and stopped Spaniard Miguel Mallon in the tenth round as the perfect example of how he will react tonight.

"This is not going the distance. I'm ready for 12 rounds but this is not going to go to there," said Pickering.

"Michael is ready for the fight, I can see it in his eyes. But I'm taking him to a different level. I know he will be ready but he will come unstuck."

Hunter will spend the day building up to tonight's fight like 'a prisoner of war' in his coach Neil Fannan's home.

He weighed in at 8st 9oz, while his opponent was 8st 9 11oz, and Fannan believes his unbeaten boxer could quite easily become the first from the town to hold all three belts since the late Teddy Gardner 53 years ago.

"This is a 50-50 fight on paper," said Fannan, knowing one of the reasons Sky Sports chose this fight to screen live was because of its potential. "If I was a neutral Pickering is probably slight favourite, but Michael has every chance.

"You can tell how special this fight is because when there's such an event in Hartlepool the whole place gets a buzz and you can sense the buzz for this one."

Hunter's manager Dave Garside - himself a former title challenging crusierweight - expects his fighter to go on to even bigger and better things after tonight.

"It's the highlight of Michael's career," he said. "To fight for British, European and Commonwealth titles is fantastic.

"There's more interest in this than when Michael won the WBF world title belt in 2002. But these three belts will mean he is champion of three quarters of the world anyway. There's only America left after this and that's where we want to be."

* There are still a few tickets available and they can be purchased on the door.