Olympic bronze medalist and undefeated professional boxer, Joshua Buatsi, has split from Eddie Hearn’s Gym to join promoter Ben Shalom at BOXXER and Sky Sports.
‘JB’ is unbeaten in 16 lightweight title fights and boasts 13 stops after those wins. He’s been promoted by Hearn since turning pro in 2017, despite disappointingly inactive in recent years.
The 175lb contender has played just once in 2020 – Saturday’s stoppage time match against Marko Calic – twice in 2021 – knocking out Daniel Blenda Dos Santos and Ricards Bolotniks – and once in 2022 – unanimous decision against a domestic competitor, Craig Richards.
Buatsi’s name holds weight in a busy division, with his ability to fight against Anthony Yarde, Lyndon Arthur and Callum Smith all appealing to British fans. His name is also mentioned along with Dan Azeez, who just went to Paris to win the European Championship.
Buatsi is not far from challenging the top dogs in Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol, who are No 1 contenders for Bivol’s WBA belt and No 3 for both WBC and WBO held by Beterbiev.
Give notice, Sports sky says that Buatsi will start on May 6 in Birmingham, with an opponent yet to be confirmed. Shalom said they wanted to ‘make up for lost time’.
“Buatsi wants the biggest matches possible in front of the largest possible audience to reach his limitless potential. He feels like he wants to make up for lost time and we look forward to sharing this journey with him, as he begins to bring important nights and titles to England.”
Eddie Hearn recently said that Buatsi turned down seven figures to face Bivoland that he has the appropriate rights in the terms of their contract, meaning that an offer from BOXXER – or any other advertiser – must be made to him first.
In the end, that didn’t stand in the way of Joshua Buatsi’s transition and next chapter.
