Buatsi has done all the hard Yardes

JOSHUA BUATSI claims tonight’s British light-heavyweight title challenge against Liam Conroy is the latest step towards world recognition. I’m inclined to agree.

His rivalry with Anthony Yarde is intriguing for a British audience, and hopefully at some point they will get to prove who is the better man in the ring.

Though Yarde is installed as the No.1 challenger to WBO champion Sergey Kovalev, if I was to take a guess at who is better equipped to prosper at world level my money would be on Buatsi.

Buatsi is a graduate of the British highperformance centre where he benefited from competition against the best young fighters in the world.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio he lost by a smidgeon in the silver-medal bout to take bronze. That told me he was a world-class prospect. At big international amateur events they are fighting one day after another, which is a fantastic learning environment. If you haven’t been there you can’t replicate that experience. Yarde does not have this background. He has not been tested to the same degree.

Nine times out of 10, give me the guy who has worked through that elite amateur process. He has proven pedigree.

That rule of thumb was backed up when I watched Buatsi spar at our gym. As well as doing plenty of rounds with George Groves I saw him flatten a cruiserweight cold with a left hook.

At 6ft 2in he is the perfect shape for light-heavy. He is well-coordinated, has beautiful boxing skills and balance, he can take a shot, and he can really punch.

This might have something to do with his Ghanaian background. Buatsi (above) was born in Accra, a boxing hotbed that has given us the great Azumah Nelson,

Ike Quartey and Joshua Clottey.

Yarde is powerful and can obviously hit, but he has not yet taken a world-class punch. Buatsi will have been rigorously tested at the big amateur tournaments.

Yarde will get to demonstrate his ability to manage a big occasion if he decides to take on Kovalev, especially if he has to travel to America to do that.

No disrespect to Conroy, who is attempting to become the first boxer from Barrow-in-furness to win a Lonsdale belt, but he is destined to become one more notch on Buatsi’s record.

This lad is a special talent, which he will prove, arguably with another stoppage, at London’s Copperbox tonight.

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