Anthony Joshua has landed his first world title shot in just his 16th professional fight with Charles Martin agreeing to defend the IBF heavyweight championship at London's O2 Arena on April 9.
American Martin will make a first defence of the belt he won last month against Britain's 2012 Olympic gold medallist who has stopped all but one of 15 victims within the first three rounds.
"Fighting for the heavyweight world title has been a dream of mine since I turned professional," said Watford-born Joshua. "I feel privileged to have the opportunity to turn that dream in to reality. Not only that, having the chance to fight for it in my home town at The O2 is unbelievably exciting.
"Charles Martin is a great fighter and a hungry competitor so I am going to have to produce the performance of my career to claim that belt."
Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs), 29, is undefeated like Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs) and sprang from relative obscurity when he won the vacant IBF belt by third round TKO after Ukrainian Vyacheslav Glazkov injured a knee when they met in New York last month.
Martin, from Carson in California, only got his chance to hold one of the four world title belts because Joshua's fellow Briton Tyson Fury was quickly stripped of the IBF belt after he had won it -- along with the WBA and WBO titles -- with a shock points win over Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko.
The IBF made the decision because Fury agreed to an immediate rematch with Klitschko, who had ruled as IBF champion for over nine years.
Martin has vowed to knock out Joshua and silence the Briton's home fans in his first defence.
"I told my team I wanted the best challenger possible for my first defence and Anthony Joshua's name kept coming up," said Martin. "I'm coming to the UK to make a statement that I am the best heavyweight in the world and no-one is taking my title.
"I'm world champion, so that doesn't mean just sit back and make easy defences in the U.S., it means facing the biggest challenges out there. I respect Anthony Joshua and everything he has accomplished, but on April 9 he's getting knocked out."
North-London based Joshua, 26, is already in training and is expected to come face-to-face with Martin at a press conference in London on Thursday or Friday.
"He wants to give the fans something to get excited about and he wants to become a great and even though the decision among the team took a week or so, I believe his mind was already made up from the moment I asked him," said Hearn.
"It's a complete honour to promote an event of this magnitude. I believe it's one that will go down in the history of the sport."
Last year both Martin and Joshua fought Brazilian Raphael Zumbano Love; Joshua knocked him out in two rounds while Martin took 10 rounds to pull off the stoppage.