Joshua Buatsi faces Craig Richards on Saturday night in their light-heavyweight bout but boxing fans are still waiting for a “wow” performance from the 2016 Olympic bronze medal winner
Joshua Buatsi is right, the showdown with Craig Richards at the 02 is the biggest fight of his career.
The London rivals are well known to each other. Buatsi won on points when they met at the divisional stages of the 2014 ABA Championships. He went on to win light heavyweight bronze at the Rio Olympics, the highlight of a stellar amateur career in which he outshone Richards.
But as we have said so many times before the pro game is different, and Richards proved in dropping a close decision to Dimitry Bivol, he is world class. I thought Bivol would blast Richards. I either under-rated Richards or overstated Bivol, maybe a bit of both.
We had Richards in to spar with cruiserweight Chris Billum-Smith. He called me out for my assessment. All in good fun, of course. I don’t think we have ever had as good a domestic light heavy division as this, and that includes the John Conteh/Chris Finegan era. Callum Smith, Callum Johnson, Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur as well as Buatsi and Richards. That’s unprecedented for this country at world level.
Buatsi is the stand-out, but he has to show me something in this fight. Most Olympians will give you that wow performance on the way up. I’m still waiting for that riveting display from Buatsi. I still give him the edge in this fight. He is smooth, controlled, confident and relaxed. And he can wallop. Richards can bang too, as well as box. He is just as strong and takes a good shot.
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And Buatsi can be outworked. Richards has good pace. As he showed against Bivol and having watched him spar he will push Buatsi all the way. Buatsi does not like to be pressured. He likes to come forward and dominate the centre of the ring. Richards likes to fight on the front foot too, so the guy who controls the centre of the ring will win.
Richards made Bivol fight for every second of their bout. That got my attention. He is well used to being the underdog so that won’t bother him. In fact it is how he likes it. It makes for better returns, he jokes, when his family collect their winnings from the bookies. If Buatsi is not on point, there is a good chance another windfall is on its way because Richards definitely has the tools to win.
Follow Barry on Twitter at @ClonesCyclone @McGuigans_Gym
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