NEW ORLEANS -- On Saturday night Eric Harding will climb into the ring with Roy Jones Jr. -- the undisputed light heavyweight world champion, the "Fighter of the Decade" in the 1990s, the man dubbed the best fighter in the world, pound for pound.

Jones is a tough guy, deadly, dangerous, but just another in a long string of tough guys for Harding.

"I've been shot twice and stabbed three times," Harding said. "I wasn't intimidated by the guys that shot me or stabbed me. Why would I be intimidated by him?"

Harding learned about tough times on the mean streets of Philadelphia. His mother threw him out when he was 15 after he decided he was too big to live by her rules. She had second thoughts and tried to get him to come home again, but Harding was busy learning about life on his own.

On the streets, just surviving was a fight. Every day was a hustle. Any confrontation could be deadly.

"You know in Philadelphia that if you have a problem with certain guys that it's going to lead to guns being shot eventually," Harding said.

Fistfights are rarely an option, "so you know if you have a problem with people in Philadelphia somebody's going to get hurt," he said.

Harding was shot twice: once in the hand when he slapped away a gun aimed at his head, once in the leg.

He dropped out of school at 16. By the time he was 17 the Philadelphia police knew him so well from his frequent arrests they routinely stopped him, questioned him and searched him.

In what he refers to as his "numerous" jail stays, Harding was stabbed three times.

"Once again it was just leading into the same things I got into out on the streets," he said.

During all of this Harding had two sons born, but it was the birth of his daughter, Zaahira, that woke him up.

"My sons are going to be men someday," Harding said. "They're going to learn how to raise themselves just as I did. I'm going to always be there for them to give them a hand in any way I can. But my daughter is different. She's special. She's a little girl. I've got to watch out over her and make sure she's got it right."

Harding realized he could not take care of his daughter if he was in jail or dead. He also realized that if he stayed on the streets that's probably how he'd end up.

So he went to Howard "Moses" Mosley, who had taught him to box at 12, and shadowed him ever since.

"I loved him like he was my own," Mosley said. "But I knew he was going to die if he kept on the way he was going."

The first thing Mosley did was get Harding out of Philadelphia, moving him to Connecticut the morning after Harding's best friend was shot in the head. After that he had no trouble keeping Harding on track.

These days Harding spends his time boxing and taking care of his children.

"I go to the PTA, I help them with their homework," Harding said. "I do all the things I can to help them grow up right."

Since resuming his boxing career in 1995 Harding has won 19 straight fights. Going into Saturday's match, Harding has a 19-0-1 record.

His climb in the rankings began in 1998 when he won a 12-round decision against Monte Griffin for the North American Boxing Federation middleweight title.

In June Harding earned a 12-round decision against Antonio Tarver in an elimination bout to face Jones. In that bout Harding fractured Tarver's jaw and broke two of his ribs.

Being through what he has makes stepping into the ring easy, Harding said.

"It doesn't give me incentive, because just winning and raising my family and being able to support my family financially is incentive enough," he said. "But it makes me mentally tough because I've been through so much adversity, I can come back from anything."

Harding will collect $600,000 for the Jones fight. Oddsmakers scoff at the thought of Harding also collecting the title against Jones, who is 42-1 and considered one of the best fighters in the sport.

Harding thinks differently, of course. Not that the title would change his life.

"It would only change my life financially," Harding said. "Because everything else in my life I'm fine, I'm set. That's all it could do for me. It's not going to make me go crazy and go back to Philadelphia and hang out with the street guys. Win, lose or draw, I'm fine with myself. I know who I am and I'm at peace with myself."