BUATSI NEEDS TO HIT THE BIG TIME
JOSHUA BUATSI has talked the talk. Now he must finally walk the walk.
The British light-heavyweight feels switching to Boxxer and Sky is the key to him becoming world champion.
He believes the new deal – after ditching Matchroom – is right for him as he gets ready for his first outing with his new promoters tonight when he takes on Pawel Stepien in Birmingham.
But when will he deliver in the ring the big plans he has so often predicted?
Buatsi is now 30 and it’s nearly seven years since he won bronze at the Rio Olympics.
His team-mate Joe Cordina has won two world titles in that time, Lawrence Okolie has won one, while Joe Joyce had been pushing for his heavyweight shot until a shock defeat by Zhilei Zhang last month.
There were others who didn’t quite cut it in the paid ranks so far but Buatsi has yet to really trouble anyone at world level, despite being arguably the most talented to come out of the male team in Brazil back in 2016.
Matchroom offered him a shot at WBA champion Dmitry Bivol but he turned it down over the clauses that came with it which would tie him down to Eddie Hearn’s promotional company for a number of fights.
There is some understanding of that decision.
But where does the belief come that Boxxer and promoter Ben Shalom will deliver him Bivol or WBO, IBF and WBC king Artur Beterbiev?
Bivol is now waiting for Canelo Alvarez, while Beterbiev is facing Callum Smith this summer.
Buatsi is right that Sky will give him a bigger platform and there will be more eyeballs on him when he fights.
But if he’s not in big fights, then those eyes will soon wander off elsewhere. Buatsi has it all to be a British boxing superstar.
Now is the time to deliver.