Buatsi could fight Yarde or Smith before world title shot

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. ‘The Juggernaut’ 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.

“There’s no more in-between fights or this or that,” Buatsi told Boxing News.

“I’ve see Joe Joyce have an interim belt and take certain fights that I think he shouldn’t have taken and then ran into Zhang and then Chisora so it’s something to learn from.

“But there’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 he’s at. The most important thing you can do is keep winning, whoever’s in front of you make sure you win.”

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.

“It probably is a Yarde fight,” he expressed.

“What other fight’s intriguing right now… Callum Smith. I’ve heard that name’s been put forward in terms of that could be a fight. Those are the two names that has been mentioned but until the paperwork’s in front of you it’s always just talk but we’ll see.”