St Albans boxer Joe Smyth is making his long-awaited return to the ring on Saturday.

Smyth will step in the ring at the Camden Centre, Kings Cross, against Mihai Macovei. It will be the first time the St Albans fighter has fought since his fourth round stoppage against Steffan Hughes in February 2012.

Since then Smyth, who was a promising amateur on got his professional career off to a perfect start with six wins, including three TKOs, has been derailed by injuries.

Speaking to hellraiserboxing.com the 27-year-old said: ““I’ve had every injury possible. I seem to train for a few months, then something goes wrong.

“I was busy at the start of my career - but I’ve had lots of injury problems since then…but now I can’t wait to get back in the ring.”

He will hope to put his injury demons behind him and beat Macovei on Saturday. The Romanian has a 7-11 record and lost his last fight against debutant Abel Gevor in Germany on points.

After that Smyth has his sights set on the currently vacant light-heavyweight Southern Area belt, which Andreas Evangelou and Leon Senior are scheduled to fight over. Smyth wants to winner.

“I will beat them both in the same night,” he said.

“We’ve tried to get Evangelou to the gym for sparring - but he never turns up. If he wins the title and I’m his mandatory challenger he has to fight me or give up the belt.

“I’ve got to get this fight out of the way, win the Southern Area title, then move on again.

“I reckon I can pick up a few belts over the next three years. I’ve just got to get a few rounds under my belt.”

Smyth plans to sharpen his skills sparring Commonwealth super-middleweight champion George Groves - and says he’s in the mood to put on an explosive show.