THE appearance of Joshua Buatsi at the Copper Box last night set tongues wagging that a fight between the unbeaten light-heavyweight and rival Anthony Yarde is a real possibility.
Buatsi witnessed Yarde stop the limited Marko Nikolic in three rounds. It was a typically dominant performance from the 32-year-old against opposition we have come to expect before the Londoner makes several jumps in class as he has shown in the past against Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev.
Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will fight for all four world belts on June 1 in Saudi Arabia leaving Buatsi and Yarde in a position where fighting one another in the meantime makes sense. Buatsi defeated friend and former sparring partner Dan Azeez on February 3 and in the post-fight press conference the winner spoke of remaining active with Yarde touted as being next for the 2016 Olympic Bronze medallist.
During Yarde’s post-fight interview with TNT Sports last night Buatsi was brought in to comment on his rival’s performance and the possibility of the two men fighting one another.
Boxing News also caught up with Buatsi and asked him for an update on how negotiations were going.
“There’s talks but a lot of fighters have spoken, and they’ve never fought so I’m hoping it’s not gonna be [another] one. It’s a fight that the public have waited for a very long time and a fight that makes sense next for the both of us.
“Announcement wise I don’t know how long it takes but hopefully this fight can be around May, June, July time.”
When asked if he had a message for his rival, Buatsi said: “Let’s get it cracking bro. It’s simple. The message is simple. When they [TNT Sports] asked me to elaborate I said it’s simple this is the fight I want next.”
