Although he faces Denis Lebedev on July 18, Enzo Maccarinelli insists he has only one man on his mind, Ola Afolabi.
Afolabi knocked out Maccarinelli in nine rounds in March to win the vacant interim WBO cruiserweight title - ending the Welshman's hopes of regaining the belt he dropped to David Haye a year earlier.
Since then Maccarinelli has left Enzo Calzaghe to work with Manchester-based trainer Karl Ince.
Maccarinelli insists the change has done him good and will help him be ready when he next meets Afolabi in the ring.
"I felt a bit stale, I needed to move on," Maccarinelli said on Steve Bunce's Boxing Hour.
"I was so devastated by the way I performed last time out; it just hit me for six.
"I was offered a nice, easy warm up to get me back in the swing of things or they offered me this undefeated Russian.
"Basically I said ‘Give me the Russian’.
"I spoke to Frank [Warren] and this is a way to get me one step closer to Ola, quickly. That’s the only fight I want.
"If the fight can be made Frank’s the man to make it. Until I fight Ola again my boxing career isn’t going to move on. With Ola I fought well below my best. That’s the fight that I want, but first I’ve got to get past Denis Lebedev."
The cruiserweight number one Tomasz Adamek faces a former opponent of Big Macc, Bobby Gunn, who the Welshman stopped in a round on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe-Peter Manfredo in April 2007.
Maccarinelli, who will fight Lebedev on July 18 at the MEN Arena, expects the Pole to make short work of Gunn.
"I don’t know which way they’re trying to pull [Tomasz] Adamek," Maccarinelli added. "He’s had a couple of good, hard fights and now he’s fighting Bobby Gunn.
"On paper it’s an easy fight but maybe Gunn will take him a few rounds."