LA Knight has a new target on his back, says United States Championship is "perfect first title"

LA Knight is confident, defiant, and the WWE United States Champion. His ongoing reign is his first, making it extra important for him to defend and retain at every chance he gets, ergo proving his mettle.

Tonight on USA Network's SmackDown inside the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, LA Knight will defend his belt against Andrade, who became the number one contender by defeating Carmelo Hayes last Friday.

Hayes recently spoke at The Ringer's Masked Man Show, during which he brought up the US Title. Despite coming out on the losing end of the spectrum, the young stalwart claimed that it is his "destiny" to win the workhorse belt currently in possession of The Megastar.

"It’s inevitable. It’s my fate, it’s my destiny, you know what I mean? The United States Championship, you look at all of the guys that held that previously, it’s the perfect first title for a guy. Especially a guy like me, who does take a lot of pride in my work rate." Carmelo Hayes said. [H/T: Fightful.com]

Andrade and Carmelo Hayes locked horns on five separate occasions, with the last one taking place to determine LA Knight's next challenger. El Idolo will attempt to bring Knight's reign to a screeching halt tonight.

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LA Knight's sole focus is to remain the United States Champion

At SummerSlam on August 3, inside the Cleveland Browns Stadium, LA Knight defeated Logan Paul to win his first main roster title in WWE. Ahead of his match against Andrade tonight, he assured nobody would be taking the US Title away from him.

Meanwhile, among the variety of topics he discussed with Brad Gilmore on Reality of Wrestling recently, Knight touched upon his win over The Maverick and why it mattered more than anything else he has done thus far.

The host also pointed to the fact that The Megastar remains undefeated at SummerSlam, which could give him the moniker "Mr. SummerSlam" eventually.

"Who knows? There’s never been one before. But yeah, I mean, now that you think about it, hell, the Slim Jim Battle Royal last year, the US Championship this year, yeah, who knows? Who knows what SummerSlam 25 could bring along? At this point, you know what, I took over the United States Championship. You’ve got to think about it—maybe I take over the world. Who knows? But we’ll see what lies ahead," he said.

With two superstars on the SmackDown roster already after him, how far will The Megastar go with his reign intact? Only time will tell.