JOSHUA BUATSI wants to avoid the career dip which Joe Joyce suffered after winning an interim title.

Joyce captured the WBO interim heavyweight belt after impressively beating Joseph Parker in September 2022. โ€˜The Juggernautโ€™ then lost the title to Zhilei Zhang and then suffering a second defeat to the Chinese heavyweight. And in July Joyce lost to Derek Chisora over 10 rounds.

Buatsi currently holds the WBO interim light-heavyweight strap having overcame a brave effort from Willy Hutchinson last month. The unbeaten 31-year-old now wants a world title shot.

โ€œThereโ€™s no more in-between fights or this or that,โ€ Buatsi told Boxing News.

โ€œIโ€™ve see Joe Joyce have an interim belt and take certain fights that I think he shouldnโ€™t have taken and then ran into Zhang and then Chisora so itโ€™s something to learn from.

โ€œBut thereโ€™s also [other] fighters that had the interim themselves, well Daniel Dubois. I think he won the IBF interim and then got a big win against AJ and now look where heโ€™s at. The most important thing you can do is keep winning, whoeverโ€™s in front of you make sure you win.โ€

Buatsi will now target a fight against Artur Beterbiev but may need to step aside if a rematch between the undisputed champion and Dmitry Bivol is agreed. There are two fights, in the meantime, which could interest Buatsi.

โ€œIt probably is a Yarde fight,โ€ he expressed.

โ€œWhat other fightโ€™s intriguing right nowโ€ฆ Callum Smith. Iโ€™ve heard that nameโ€™s been put forward in terms of that could be a fight. Those are the two names that has been mentioned but until the paperworkโ€™s in front of you itโ€™s always just talk but weโ€™ll see.โ€