On Saturday night, Joshau Buatsi put in a mature and impressive performance as he beat Willy Hutchinson by split decision on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois at the Riyadh Season event at Wembley Stadium, despite many believing he should have been ahead on all three scorecards.
Joshua Buatsi came in as the favourite but on the lead up to fight night, Hutchinson became increasingly popular among the fans as the boxer to pull of the upset of the night.
Boos rang around Trafalgar Square as Buatsi weighed in ahead of the clash to which Buatsi seemingly enjoyed and demanded more, cupping his hand to his ears in the post weigh-in interview.
But the 31-year-old made it very clear on the night of his bout with Hutchinson that the noise outside the ring did not get through to him in any way as he put on a classy performance, dropping his opponent twice on his way to a points victory.
JOSHUA BUATSI AND WILLY HUTCHINSON FEUD
Willy Hutchinson claimed that he respected Joshua Buatsi until he refused to shake hands with the Scot in the build-up. This may seem un-sportsmanlike at first glance but it’s important to realise this is an ongoing tradition for Joshua Buatsi in the lead up to his fights.
Shaking hands is commonly seen as a sign of respect between two warriors ready to put it all on the line. It’s a way of showing the other man and the fans that despite training to knock their opponents unconscious, that it isn’t personal between the two and they are simply doing what they need to do to progress.
But Buatsi says he doesn’t feel the need to shake hands and show respect to someone who he will share the ring with, and instead prefers to appreciate his opponent after the fight is done.
Regardless, the lack of handshaking proved to put a bit of needle into this contest as Willy Hutchinson saw it as a sign of disrespect and decided to spice things up by sticking it on Buatsi in the lead up.
The face-off on the DAZN YouTube channel is where the bad blood first started to spill over, as the pair confronted one another whilst the cameras were supposed to stop rolling after the video was recorded.
Joshua Buatsi ended up with his hand around Hutchinson’s throat as the two had to be separated by security, following an exchange of words by the pair off camera.
This was Buatsi’s response to being the subject of insults and jokes thrown in his direction during the seated face-off as a result of Buatsi refusing to shake the “Hutch-Train’s” hand.
The bad blood continued to boil over throughout fight week as tension increasingly grew despite Buatsi not being too vocal after telling media outlets that he had already answered their questions in previous interviews and that they should “look it up”.
JOSHUA BUATSI WINS IN COMFORTABLE FASHION
When it came to fight night, it was clear that Willy Hutchinson built a good following during the build-up, and it was his fans’ cheers and chants that could be heard inside the stadium more so than those of Joshua Buatsi.
Despite not being the favourite among the crowd and having a 7 month lay-off compared to Hutchinson last competing in June, Buatsi put in a very composed and classy display over 12 rounds to ensure he became the WBO Interim World Light Heavyweight champion.
He dropped his opponent twice – once in the 6th round after a combination of body shots just before the bell, and again in the 9th in a similar fashion to the first knockdown.
Hutchinson also received a points deduction in round 7 after seemingly repeating to push his head in Buatsi’s direction during the clinch.
The combination of the two knockdowns, the points deduction and the overall fairly dominant performance by Joshua Buatsi led fans and pundits to believe that he would cruise to a unanimous decision victory. But it was after one of the judges’ scorecards read out a points decision in favour of the Scot which briefly concerned those watching before Buatsi ended up as the victor.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR JOSHUA BUATSI?
As WBO Interim title holder, Joshua Buatsi now looks the favourite to step into the ring with the winner of the huge undisputed clash between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol on October 12th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Whether that is the next fight for Buatsi, or he takes on someone else, fans will be eager to see him back in action after two impressive performances and victories in 2024 and look ahead to what could be the biggest year of Buatsi’s career so far.
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