When Joshua Buatsi sat back and surveyed the light heavyweight landscape after his decision victory over Dan Azeez in February, the picture couldn’t have looked much better.
With the WBO, WBC and IBF 175-pound champion Artur Beterbiev set to unify the division against his WBA counterpart Dmitry Bivol, and a WBO interim title fight with Yarde seemingly secured, the 31-year-old’s frustratingly stop-start career finally seemed to have some real momentum.
You know what they say about best-laid plans?
First, Yarde became embroiled in an ongoing contractual dispute with Queensberry Promotions. Then Beterbiev injured his knee, causing his fight with Bivol to be delayed by four months.
Inactivity has been Buatsi’s most difficult and persistent opponent throughout his career, and with all four light heavyweight world titles tied up for the remainder of 2024 and his most high-profile, lucrative opponent seemingly set for a prolonged spell on the sidelines, Buatsi spent a couple of weeks worrying that he would once again be forced to sit on his hands and watch events play out in the 175-pound division.
Fortunately, other pieces fell into place for him. First, Willy Hutchinson produced an excellent performance to beat Craig Richards in Saudi Arabia. Then the WBO quickly agreed to Queensberry’s request that the 26-year-old Hutchinson be considered to fight Buatsi instead of Yarde.
The decision to stage Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua at London’s Wembley Stadium gave a fight between Buatsi and Hutchinson a natural home, and Buatsi quickly pivoted and fell right back into training. Buatsi (18-0, 13 KOs) and Hutchinson (18-1, 13 KOs) will fight in London on Sept. 21.
“After the Azeez fight, I think I had a month off,” Buatsi told BoxingScene. “I still trained, but it was a month in England and Europe. It was a month away from camp, basically. Then I came back to the States ‘til early June. I figured out the fight [with Yarde] wasn’t going to happen. I wanted to fight mid-June.
“I came back and watched the fight between Richard Riakporhe and Chris Billam-Smith, hung around and then this fight came about and I got on the plane and came back out here. I’ve been training; I’ve been in camp. I think people wonder what I do in the long spells between fights. I tell them: ‘You get up and go to work. I get up and go to the gym.’ It’s the same thing. That’s my routine. Training is the first thing I do.
“Once you’re finished, you can do whatever you want. But when I wake up, I go to the gym first and spend hours there, and then the day is mine. When I come to the States, it’s literally only boxing. That’s all I do out here.”
Though talk of a fight with Yarde is certain to resurface should he beat Hutchinson, Buatsi’s immediate plan is to get past the Scotsman and then make sure that he is at ringside in Saudi Arabia to watch Beterbiev and Bivol do battle on Oct. 12.
“That will be the next move after this fight, God willing,” he said. “Head out there to see the two champions go at it and see who unifies the division.”
Buatsi has been making the trip to California to work with the respected Virgil Hunter for just over three years. Transatlantic relationships don’t tend to last that long unless both parties enjoy and recognize the benefits of working together and can see room for further success and growth.
Buatsi received plenty of plaudits for the way he tamed the determined and aggressive Azeez, but Hunter is renowned for being a perfectionist and Buatsi has adopted the same mindset.
When he sat down and watched the fight back, Buatsi instantly spotted areas where he could improve and situations that he could have handled differently. When he and Hunter compared notes, their criticisms tallied up.
“There’s a few things that I picked up on and he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s not good,’” Buatsi explained. “There are things to work on, things to improve and things that you can’t get away with all of the time.
“As much as it was a dominant win, from my perspective, there’s still so much to work on. There’s a lot of things that I wasn’t happy with. I got the job done comfortably, but there’s a lot more to work on and things that – going forward – I won’t be able to get away with.”
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