THE bookmakers and boxing pundits are not giving Martin Murray much of a hope of taking the WBC world middleweight belt from champion Sergio Martinez in own Argentine backyard.

But that does not matter one jot to the unbeaten 30-year-old fighter from Fingerpost who has real belief that he can shake up the world in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Murray, who has been in camp for 16 weeks preparing for the fight of his life, is using bookmakers odds of 1/8 for the champion to retain his crown as additional motivation to do the job in Buenos Aires.

Murray, who will be wearing the red vee on his shorts and flying the flag for St Helens as he enters the cauldron like Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield, has vowed to do the town proud.

He said: “If I don’t believe in myself, who is going to believe in me?

“The town, my family and friends are rooting for me but I am a massive underdog in the fight and everyone is betting against me apart from people who know me.

“I have never lacked motivation for training but having so many people write me off and not give me a chance has added that little bit of edge to it.

“I am looking forward to showing what I can do and proving them all wrong.”

This is Murray’s second tilt at a world title, with his last attempt in December 2011 against Germany’s Felix Sturm ending in a draw.

A frustrating 2012 followed for the former St Helens Town ABC amateur with a fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the USA scuppered due to visa issues.

But Murray held his nerve, comfortably seeing off Karim Achour and Jorge Navarro to secure a crack at the world title.

“It does not get bigger than fighting the pound-for-pound king in his own backyard in Argentina.

“It is a massive task – it is the fight of my life. I have got to win, I know I can win and I can see myself winning it.

“It is a massive task. If I go over there and do it then it is going to go down as one of the best British victories boxing has ever known.

“Hopefully we can pull it off and I can do myself, family and the town proud,” he said.