Determined Joshua Buatsi ready to prove the best is yet to come

Far from being unnerved by Willy Hutchinson’s seemingly unwavering self-confidence, Joshua Buatsi is looking forward to testing out just how real it is when he fights the talented but unpredictable light heavyweight at Wembley Stadium on September 21. 

Buatsi, 18-0 (13 KOs), has sparred Hutchinson. He has shared a press conference with him and stared directly into the wild eyes. He has sat across from him and attempted to decipher the stream of consciousness that pours forth when Hutchinson speaks. He even felt his hand tighten around the Scotsman’s throat when the two decided to continue their pre-fight head-to-head discussion long after the director shouted ‘cut.’

Still, he is none the wiser as to whether the self belief that seems to seep out of Hutchinson, 18-1 (13 KOs), is real. 

“I don’t even know. The best thing is that in the ring the truth always comes out. Whether it’s real, whether it’s fake. Whether you’re about it or whether you aren’t. If you are who you say you are, it comes out in the ring,” Buatsi told BoxingScene.

“Against ‘Spider’ [Craig Richards, who Hutchinson impressively beat in June] it worked and he came out on top. We have to give him credit for that and I won’t take that away. You’re asking me if it’s real or not but I don’t even know. I haven’t looked in and thought, ‘Is he as confident as he says?’ I think fight night will give us the opportunity to find out.”

Buatsi is renowned for becoming more intense and serious as fight night draws closer but he is generally a composed, self-contained character and rarely lets daylight in on his true feelings.

The brief skirmish he instigated with Hutchinson at the event’s media day was the most animated we have seen Buatsi around an opponent. It has to be said that he lost his temper in the most polite way possible but it was still a departure from the cold, businesslike role we have grown accustomed to seeing Buatsi play. 

If Hutchinson boarded his train home believing that he had managed to worm his way into Buatsi’s mind, he may be mistaken, however. 

Fighting Hutchinson does seem to present almost as big a mental challenge as it does a physical one, but the idea that you can read anything into an opponent’s pre-fight demeanor holds little water with Buatsi.

“I think it’s a battle of everything,” Buatsi said. “There’s 12 rounds to do it. Look, there’s a lot of things he’s said and a certain way he’s behaved that I may or may not agree with. Some things he says are quite funny. Other things he says, I’m like, ‘You’re talking too much. You’re doing too much.’ I had to pull him up on it. I’m looking forward to September and seeing what happens.

“I think you can look and find something that you want to be there. I might look and think that I want this guy to be scared or you might do things to make him scared. Then, when you see whatever it is that you think you’re looking for, you might think, ‘Yeah, he’s scared.’ That might be your mind tricking you yourself but whatever you have to do to make it work for you, make it happen.”

Buatsi is 31 years old and eight years have passed since he won his Olympic bronze medal in Rio. 

There have been times when he has appeared more than ready for some more ambitious matchmaking and if he doesn’t quite fight with the handbrake held on, he does sometimes appear a little too happy to slip into cruise control mode. 

It is fair to say that Buatsi has yet to produce the complete, breakout performance many believe he is capable of but, to some extent, he has also been a victim of circumstance. 

Injury and inactivity have held him back. On his biggest nights – against his South London friends and rivals Craig Richards and Dan Azeez – Buatsi was forced to put personal feelings to one side. Other important victories came against solid but unheralded opponents or took place in the sterile, silent era of COVID compliant boxing. 

The eyes of the world will be on Buatsi when he walks out to fight Hutchinson, an opponent who clearly lights a fire inside of him.

He knows that a win will earn him the interim WBO title and put him in pole position to fight the winner of October’s undisputed light heavyweight title fight between WBO, WBC and IBF champion, Artur Beterbiev, and WBA title holder, Dmitry Bivol. 

With so much at stake, Buatsi isn’t going to change the habit of a lifetime and fight recklessly but the opportunity couldn’t be better for him to show who he really is. 

“I think the conditions are primed for a good fight. Whether it’s going to bring the best out in me, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s going to bring a version of me to win. That’s what I’m looking forward to. There’s been a bit of talking, a bit of wrestling, a bit of everything. All that’s left to do now is to fight. Is the confidence he’s portraying true? We’re going to find out. In terms of the best version of me? People haven’t seen that yet.”