As the heavyweight division sinks ever deeper into mediocrity, the powers-that-be keep hoping for the next great heavyweight. Actually, the next very good heavyweight will do at this point. The latest prospect to audition for the role is 24-year-old Nigerian-born Samuel Peter (23-0, 20 KOs).

The early stages of Peter’s career were marked by slow, robotic movement. But in recent fights, he has become more mobile and begun to develop a variety of punches instead of relying exclusively on metronomic jab-righthand-jab-righthand sequences. On Saturday night, he takes the next step in his development as a fighter when he faces Taurus Sykes (23-1-1, 6 KOs), a 30-year-old veteran of the club-fight circuit. The fight won’t tell us if Peter is good, but it might expose him if he isn’t.

The key to Peter’s potential is his punching power. He has 20 knockouts in 23 fights; Sykes, by contrast, has only one KO in his last 15 bouts. That means Peter can proceed with abandon.

Neither man has faced much in the way of opposition to date. Sykes’s most notable wins have come against Talmadge Griffis, Sherman Williams, and Friday Ahunanya (also from Nigeria). Peter has beaten Charles Shufford, but his signature victory over Jeremy Williams is the one fight that stands out on either fighter’s record. Williams got caught flush with a left hook, went down hard, and was unconscious for three minutes. While lying on the canvas, he suffered two seizures.

Sykes’s best hope seems to lie in Peter tiring should the fight go into the late rounds. That’s certainly possible. Peter’s reputation to date owes as much to an effective publicity campaign as it does to his ring accomplishments. The television networks are desperate for a new heavyweight attraction, and Peter has benefited from the same kind of marketing that heralded Michael Grant as “heir apparent” to the heavyweight throne until he was annihilated by Lennox Lewis five years ago.

Sykes says he’ll expose the flaws in Peter’s style.

“Sam Peter is an ordinary fighter,” he opined at a press conference last week. “He’s strong, but he doesn’t know how to box at all. He doesn’t even think when he boxes; he just swings. All he’ll do is come in and swing big and throw punches. He doesn’t throw any combinations. He doesn’t do anything but throw one big punch at a time. I’ll outsmart him and outthink him and then I’ll just walk away with a smile.”

“You will never see the light of beating Samuel Peter,” Peter countered. “You are a dreamer.”

In truth, Sykes, like his opponent, is technically flawed as a boxer, and has relied on toughness rather than technique throughout his career. The prevailing view is that he doesn’t have the physical strength necessary to compete with Peter.

Still, Sykes is confident and has issued the following warning to Peter: “Your life is going to change after I beat you. All those people that are talking for you now aren’t going to be with you after I beat you. They’re going to do what they did to all those other African heavyweights that they had high expectations about. They’re going to send you right back to Africa. The minute you lose, you’re out, and they’re going on to the next African.”