BUATSI SHOUTING THE ODDS

JOSHUA BUATSI has called for a fight with Anthony Yarde – well we offered him one earlier this year.

So it is a bit strange to see the British lightheavyweight come out asking for one now when he’s with another promoter.

Buatsi (left) was looking for a new promoter earlier this year so we had him in our office for talks.

We told him we wanted to make the Yarde fight later this year and because he had been out of the ring for a long time we would set him up with a warm-up opponent.

Then all roads would lead to an all-British showdown this summer.

But he opted to go another route and now he wants to speak about Yarde? It’s a bit odd.

It might be something we would look at but, given his lacklustre performance against Pawel Stepien, I don’t see him giving our man too much bother.

Anthony has just fought the best in the division in Artur Beterbiev so his stock is high.

While Buatsi has barely been in the ring and he failed to get pulses raised last weekend.

If they come to the table then of course we will be all ears but, for now, we are planning Anthony’s route to another world title fight.

Another man determined to get back on track is Joe Joyce after he triggered the rematch clause with Zhilei Zhang this week.

The plan is to let his eye heal and then look for a date most likely in August to put the pair back in.

We have options on Zhang so it will be our show again later this summer.

Joe now has some experience of being in with a top southpaw and he must learn from that first fight if he is to get revenge.