Anthony Yarde and Joshua Buatsi remain in contact regarding a potential future fight.
After Buatsi’s victory in February over Dan Azeez he attended Yarde’s stoppage of Marko Nikolic in the expectation that terms would be agreed for them to decide London’s leading light heavyweight at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park in June.
The mutual respect that exists between them meant that their encounter that night, a week after Buatsi-Azeez determined the finest light heavyweight in south London, remained friendly, but a dispute between Yarde and Queensberry Promotions contributed to plans for one of Britain’s most appealing fights being shelved.
Buatsi has since watched Willy Hutchinson outpoint Craig “Spider” Richards and agreed to fight him on September 21 at Wembley Stadium on the undercard of the fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. But if doing so eased the “stress” of the uncertainty surrounding his career – the postponement of the undisputed title fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol also would not have helped – his immediate future only became clearer after he was present at Selhurst Park to watch Chris Billam-Smith fight Richard Riakporhe in a less appealing main event.
A significant occasion for boxing in south London meant that so close to where Buatsi lives he also watched Azeez and Isaac Chamberlain in separate fights. A wider celebration of the area’s sporting achievements – and Dubois has since been installed as the IBF heavyweight champion – means that the inclusion of Crystal Palace players in the England squad for Euro 2024 was also acknowledged on an evening Buatsi, unable to truly feel a participant, inevitably detected the optimism and anticipation in the air.
“It was difficult,” he told BoxingScene. “Watching it thinking, ‘I could have boxed here; I’m from round the corner; it could have been myself and Yarde; loadsa people’. But that didn’t happen, and this came through.
“Yarde’s definitely not trying to dodge me. I spoke to him on the phone [just before the Hutchinson fight was confirmed]. We had a phone call. It’s nothing about dodging me. The fight just didn’t happen and this came up and I said, ‘Look, I’ve got a great opportunity here’. He understands, as he has to. But it’s nothing to do with him ducking me.
“He’d travelled to Jamaica, so I said, ‘How was your break?’ He said, ‘Yeah, it was alright’, and we got straight to business. But it’s just an understanding of where we’re both at and where things are at.
“It’s something that you want to happen; I want to happen. He does, and the fans want it, so hopefully we can be optimistic about it. But as you know, it’s boxing – nothing’s ever happening until both fighters are in the ring.
“It’s been very, very frustrating – in a good way. I said this to my dad. ‘It’s not as though I’m sitting here saying I’ve lost the last 10 fights – what do I do?’. It’s been a good stress. There’s been many options – both good options. But it’s been very frustrating. I wanted to box in June, straight away after the Azeez fight. I wanted to be active, but look – I waited and this has come up.
“I was mentioning how stressful these last few months have been. What of course has come up is this fight. It’s been frustrating, but we’ve got the fight we want.
“The uncertainty, and thinking one fight is gonna happen and then it doesn’t happen, and then something else comes up… Making a deal is not as straightforward as people think – that’s one thing I can say. It’s something I had to go through, but I’m happy with it.
“As much as people want to see it, I want to be in that fight. So it’s been frustrating, but I’m looking on the bright side of things now. We’ve got this one lined up, and I’m happy with it.
“It’s exciting. It compensates a lot – I can’t lie. I was saying earlier on – as fighters we watch the Riyadh Season cards and think, ‘Damn, one day I’d like to get on it’. This call came out of the blue, and we took it.”
Hutchinson, at 25 six years Buatsi’s junior, replaced Yarde as Buatsi’s likeliest opponent when in June he defeated Richards to earn the finest victory of his career.
He and Buatsi will contest the lightly regarded interim WBO title in an attempt to remain on course to challenge the winner of October’s fight between Beterbiev and Bivol. Their fight also has a further dimension via Buatsi winning an Olympic bronze medal at Rio 2016 – he continues to be widely considered the finest professional of the then-Team GB squad – and that same year Hutchinson becoming the first Scottish fighter to win gold at the world youth championships, having by then already won one at the under-17 European Championships in 2014.
“I think he beat Spider better than I beat Spider, so it was a very good performance by him,” Buatsi said.
“Not that I didn’t give him a chance, but I was convinced Spider was going to win, so he did very well to get that win. Just, the experience. Spider has fought better opposition, so I was under the illusion. ‘You know what? Spider will come out on top.’
“He turned up on the night. There’s not much to say on what he did and what he didn’t do, but he showed up. He was first to get off; he landed; he kept on winning; he was confident.
“It’s the next fight. The most dangerous fight. The most important person. Everything you want to say – it has to be. I’m looking forward to it.
“I respect [his amateur achievements], but he was a top amateur at youth level. I was at senior level. Youth boxing and senior boxing’s two different things. I respect him – he still done well, and I rate that.
“[My past opponent] Dan was ranked number two in the world; he’d won every title from southern to European level. It was a good win. It was a good win.
“Currently [the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol is] not enticing. Right now what’s enticing is the fight happening – to win that. After that, whatever happens, happens. [Hutchinson’s] what’s enticing for me next.”
By Declan Warrington