Adrian Roach will attempt to clear the first hurdle when he begins his campaign at the American Boxing Confederation Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, today.

The orthodox fighter will go toe-to-toe with Brazilian Jhonatan Conceição de Oliveira Soares in a super-welterweight preliminary bout at the Coliseo Voltaire Paladines Polo complex.

The bout was originally scheduled to be held yesterday but was pushed back a day for unspecified reasons.

The delay provided Roach with another day to prepare as he looks forward to his next outing in the ring.

“I am feeling good, I’m on weight,” Roach told The Royal Gazette.

“Preparation has gone well, we’re just training as we usually do and it’s just time to get the job done now.

“Right now it’s about resting up, keeping my head focused on the task at hand and making sure that I perform when it comes time.”

The eventual winner will advance to the quarter-finals, where they face Panama’s Eduardo Teodoro Beckford Chambers, who received a bye in the previous round.

Regarded as one of America’s biggest boxing tournaments, the event features Olympic medal-winners and world champions from 30 countries.

“Just being here around top world-class athletes is good,” Roach said.

“There are people here you see on TV and what not and you realise you are in the same position as them at the moment, so it’s a good experience.”

The championships began on Monday and run until April 1.

The medal-winners in each of the respective weight classes will earn prize money, with the winners to pocket $10,000, runners-up $5,000 and third-place finishers $2,500.

Roach has already declared his intentions to donate any prize money he earns at the event to Controversy Gym to help upgrade the Pembroke facility.

The Crandall University student is Bermuda’s sole representative at the event and is being accompanied by his school’s head boxing coach, Jon Ohlhauser.

The 19-year-old arrived in Ecuador with momentum, having improved his amateur record to nine wins from 12 bouts with an unanimous points decision against Canadian Jack Cabotaje, in his previous outing at the Epic Entertainment Fight Night Champion at The Shed, Dockyard, in January.