Rising British star Paul "Semtex" Daley (Pictures) is preparing for the fight of his life as he faces fearsome striker Duane "Bang" Ludwig on the Strikeforce/EliteXC co-promoted card June 22.

Making his third appearance on U.S. soil, Daley knows that this is a vital chance to break onto the world scene and gain international recognition.

Standing in his way is Ludwig, an experienced fighter who has taken on top competition in both K-1 and mixed martial arts. With the luxurious advantage of carrying dynamite in both fists and feet, the Denver, Colo.-based fighter will be the bookmakers' favorite going into the contest on the Frank Shamrock (Pictures)-Phil Baroni (Pictures) undercard.

The young Englishman, however, seems to be suffering no lack of confidence, suggesting he's seen exploitable holes in the American's skill set. After questioning Ludwig's chin in an earlier statement, Daley had a few things to say about his upcoming opponent:

"He's obviously a 155-pound fighter, so he ain't going to be as strong as me, that's for sure. He's not very good on the floor; he hasn't got very good takedown defense, which I guess is what he's working on. He's a kickboxer, as much as he'd like to think he's a Thai boxer, he's a kickboxer -- so that's his weakness as well, that's all we'll say about that," the welterweight laughed.

At the beginning of the year, Daley made the move from his native Nottingham to live in Basingstoke, an arrangement that still allowed him access to squad training at the Roughhouse Academy in his hometown.

In addition to these regular trips, Daley has trained with a local Thai instructor and made his way to London to work the ground game with Royler Gracie (Pictures) brown belt Eddie Kone.

Asked what improvements he felt he had made through his recent preparation, Daley mentioned his wrestling and the mental aspect of his game.

"Fighting fearlessly," he said. "I had everything before, but it was just the confidence in executing it. But my confidence has come on a lot I'd say."

This recent confidence boost was clearly on display in March, when Daley made a statement by destroying highly regarded German fighter Daniel Weichel in less than three minutes to defend his FX3 welterweight title.

Daley sprawled effortlessly away from Weichel's takedown attempts and picked his shots before finishing the fight with a picture perfect knee to the face as another takedown attempt went disastrously wrong.

"I was confident going into the fight," said ‘Semtex,' who looked back on the performance with cheerful satisfaction. "Like all fights, it never entered my mind that I'd lose. I got my weight perfect, which was a bit of a problem before that with the Azeredo fight. My weight was perfect this time, didn't have to do a drastic weight cut. I felt really sharp. I'd been doing lots of sparring, lots of takedown defense, so I just went in there and executed it all."

Having fought at a range of different weights earlier in his career, the 24-year-old Nottingham man confirmed that he feels most comfortable at welterweight.

"I'm strongest at this weight and it causes me less hassle, to be honest with you, than getting down to 160," he said. "I've only ever lost once at 170 and that was to Pat Healy (Pictures) at Sportfight over in America. My other losses have been when I was fighting at heavyweight and middleweight and at the lighter weight of 160. At 170, I'm not going to be stopped too often -- or not at all."

Another recent fight at this optimum weight saw Daley dominate Welshman Paul Jenkins (Pictures) in his fourth encounter with the affable veteran, outscoring him on the feet before landing a terrific body shot to end the fight at Cage Rage 21.

"He is a wily character," said Daley. "You never know what you're going to get and if you're not on your game or you take him lightly, you'll get caught. No fight, especially with someone who's had nearly 90 fights, is a warm up fight. I took him as I'm taking Duane: prepared well and it just went to plan."

With an increasing burden of commitments in the U.S., Daley now expects his Cage Rage British welterweight title defenses to be arranged on a single fight basis.

He has already agreed to his next challenge.

"They have come to me with an offer for September, Mark Weir (Pictures), which I have accepted and he has accepted as it stands at 170-pounds for the British title," Daley said. "All being well, that will be my fight for September's Cage Rage."

Weir, a UFC veteran, was one of the first British fighters to break onto the international scene and, cutting a significant amount of weight for the first time in his career to make the 170-pound limit, the tough Gloucester fighter will no doubt prove a solid test to gauge Daley's rise into world class competition.

"Mark Weir (Pictures) is an interesting one because he's the old warrior," suggested Daley. "I'm the new warrior, so people think that will be an interesting fight. Plus, I admire Mark. It would be a great one for the fans as well. There's lots of up-and-coming fighters that want to fight me, but as to whether I should take that fight, we'll have to see."

Although talking respectfully about other welterweights in the country, Daley made it clear that he sees himself as being on top of the pile in the UK as he continues to set himself ambitious targets.

"There are some good guys like Marios Zaromskis, whatever his name is from London Shoot; he's a tough guy who'll probably want a shot at the Cage Rage belt," Ludwig's opponent said. "Then you've got Suley Mahmoud (Pictures) and Michael Johnson, who have started fighting again [and] who will also want a shot -- but not any time soon because I want to continue winning and beating these [international] guys. So they'll always be playing catch up."

But first there's Ludwig and a chance to be showcased in front of an American audience eager for mixed martial arts.

"He's a great fighter," said Daley of Friday's opponent at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. "I admire him a lot. He's got some great combinations. He's fought some tough kickboxers -- and lost. He's got a suspect chin, but he's pretty tough. I know he's been training his wrestling as well in Colorado with Nathan Marquardt (Pictures), trying to be an all rounded fighter, so the fight could go anywhere, on the ground or standing up. We'll just play it out."