Billy Joe Saunders has been given a huge incentive to look good against Artur Akavov with his promoter Frank Warren planning a big fight against Gennady Golovkin in 2017.
Saunders will have to wait a week to defend his WBO world title for the first time after his bout with Russian Akarov was postponed until Dec. 3.
But Warren has already had talks with representatives of Golovkin, who is regarded as the world's No. 1 middleweight after stopping 33 of his 36 victims.
Saunders must come through against Akavov at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff after nearly a year out before Warren can make a deal with Golovkin, whose goal is to hold all four world title belts.
"We're talking to Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez and we would do our best to get them here, but that will be tough," Warren told ESPN.
"Bill wants the toughest fight. He's looking for a big fight in the first quarter of next year and we have got more chance of getting Golovkin over here. It would be a huge fight, the biggest of the year over here.
"Bill's had injuries and pull-outs over the last year. Chris Eubank Jr. mucked us about and never signed a deal for a rematch, but hopefully Bill will get the ring rust off in this next one and then we can start looking forward to a really big one."
Saunders, who won the WBO belt from Ireland's Andy Lee via a majority points decision in December, will have to wait for Golovkin to defend his three world middleweight titles against Danny Jacobs at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 18.
WBC-WBA-IBF champion Golovkin -- No. 2 in ESPN's pound-for-pound rankings -- stopped Saunders' fellow Briton Kell Brook in five rounds in September.
Speculation last week that former world super-middleweight champion Carl Froch was coming out of retirement to face Golovkin abruptly ended when the Briton said he has no intention of facing him.