Comments Thread For: Joshua Buatsi fighting Callum Smith for recognition of being world level

[BoxingUpdates]

The matchup will not only determine Britains finest boxer at light heavyweight, but will also establish a leading contender to the winner of the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch.
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[noone]

All that buatsi proves with this is that he is unwilling to fight the elite. smith was totally outclassed by beterbiev and badly beaten down. picking a fighter coming off such a bad loss is just another cherry-pick. so no, this proves nothing.

[TheOneAboveAll]

All that buatsi proves with this is that he is unwilling to fight the elite. smith was totally outclassed by beterbiev and badly beaten down. picking a fighter coming off such a bad loss is just another cherry-pick. so no, this proves nothing.

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[landotter]

This is actilually a very interesting and watchable fight. I think Smith wins, but I would not bet on it. It says something about Smith taking a step down to fight Buatsi when Yarde was scared to. Buatsi probably has more to gain in this fight so fair play to Smith.

I agree. This has the potential to be a really good fight. It is not like Smith has to hang his head for the loss to Beterbiev. Everyone has lost to Beterbiev. It will be interesting to see what version of Smith we get, but if he comes to play and is confident and prepared, Buatsi will need to earn it. Otherwise, it will at least be fun to watch Buatsi unload on him.

[BoxerWriter]

This is a really good fight in my opinion although it may not catch fire as they both tend to box within themselves. It's intriguing though and it's likely to be a high quality affair between two seasoned pros. It's crazy that this might be the opening fight on the Feb 22 undercard as this could easily headline a UK venue in almost any other circumstances. It says a lot about how incredible that card is. I totally get the criticism Buatsi receives for seemingly treading water but there aren't many elite LHWs out there to fight outside of Bivol and Beterbiev. Smith will actually be the best name on Buatsi's resume despite the hammering he got against Artur. He's a level above the likes of Azeez and Richards (it's hard to say how good Willy Hutchinson is, or could be, as he's a wildcard but Buatsi handled him pretty well). Either way, there's probably not many tougher fights Buatsi could take while he waits for a shot at a world title - maybe Yarde, but there's obviously politics there stopping that fight from happening (mainly the fact that Yarde has fallen out with Frank Warren and is seemingly frozen out of the Riyadh fight scene, which means the money to do a Buatsi-Yarde fight isn't there). While we wait for that, I like this fight and I think it will be close. As another comment sent, it depends which Smith turns up, how much he has left, and what his true ambition is in this fight. If he's really up for this and Buatsi doesn't get out of second gear (which is usually the case) then it could be very interesting.