Gabriel Rosado (L) in “The Pit” against Bryan Vera during the inaugural edition of Big Knockout Boxing in August 2014. Photo by David Becker/Getty Images.

Last year when Curtis Stevens was called to take part in Big Knockout Boxing’s debut event, the Brownsville middleweight passed on the opportunity in order to take on Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in an IBF title eliminator. That fight didn’t pan out so well for Stevens as he dropped a unanimous decision. With BKB calling a second time, Stevens decided that he would take the budding promotion up on its offer and will face Gabriel Rosado in Las Vegas on April 4.

“You are as good as your last fight and my last fight was a loss so I have to come back, knock his ass out and I’ll be back on the winning side,” the 30-year-old with a 27-5 (20 knockouts) professional record said to RingTV about his BKB debut. “Hopefully it will catapult me back on HBO or something.”

The irony of Stevens passing up on the inaugural show is that Rosado was the one who took his place and became the BKB champion after stopping Bryan Vera last August. Now he will look to take what could have been his last year. When asked about Rosado’s professional career, which hasn’t seen him come out of a fight with a victory since 2012, Stevens made it clear that he believes Rosado has been the beneficiary of plenty of opportunities that he simply may not have earned.

“Gabe is an okay fighter but they give him a lot of opportunities at 154 and 160,” Stevens said rather dismissively. “He’s just alright.”

Stevens has had plenty of ups and downs himself over the past couple of years. He’s 2-2 in his last four with TKO victories over Tureano Johnson and Patrick Majewski while losing when he stepped up in competition against Gennady Golovkin and the aforementioned N’Dam. But to see Rosado with the BKB middleweight title might add some incentive for Stevens to perform well in the exhibition bout. Oh yeah, and the $30,000 bonus being offered for a knockout may have lit a fire under him as well.

“I’m going to go in there and knock his ass out,” Stevens said of what to expect in “The Pit” on April 4. “He’s never been knocked out that I’ve seen aside from referee, corners or doctors stopping the fight. I’m trying to go in there and knock his ass out. I don’t want anybody stopping the fight. I want people to know that I am for real.”

Keenly aware of Rosado’s penchant for putting on entertaining fights and the fact that “The Pit” that they will be squaring off in is about half the size of a boxing ring with no ropes for an opponent to lean on, Stevens tells fight fans to expect fireworks and nothing less in the main event of BKB’s second show.

“In a traditional boxing ring he can lean on the ropes and get banged upon but in the pit you have to fight back or you’re going to get banged upon,” Stevens said of Rosado’s options on Saturday night. “He’s either going to stand there and fight or get knocked the f–k out.

“Somebody has to go, and too bad it has to be him.”