Joshua Buatsi knows it is “imperative” to beat Dan Azeez on February 3 to stay on course for a world title shot, as he eyes the winner of the mooted Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol undisputed championship clash.
Buatsi is facing Azeez, a friend and sparring partner turned rival, in a rearranged all-British fight at the OVO Arena Wembley in an eliminator for the WBA light-heavyweight world title, live on Sky Sports.
Buatsi and Azeez are each unbeaten and are first and second respectively in the WBA rankings for light-heavyweight contenders.
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Should he beat Dan Azeez in February, Joshua Buatsi says he’d prefer to have a crack at a world champion rather than a lucrative domestic dust-up with Anthony Yarde.
Speaking to Sky Sports at his open training session ahead of the fight, Buatsi agreed with the suggestion that a looming Beterbiev-Bivol bout for all the major titles made this fight with Azeez even more important for him.
“It’s imperative,” replied Buatsi.
“I’ve got good rankings with all the governing bodies so right now at this point I cannot make any mistakes.
“There’s no other way to say it, it’s very, very imperative. So we are almost there but we are not there yet.”
The all-British fight was postponed from its October date and subsequently rescheduled for February 3 after Azeez suffered a back injury in his final training session.
The developing rivalry became increasingly bitter after that and, in a video call between the pair in December, when accusations flew, Azeez accused Buatsi of acting like “a diva and a crybaby”.
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Dan Azeez believes he will walk away from the Joshua Buatsi fight with a win and the spectacle will be even bigger following the postponement from October.
Asked if the dynamic of the fight had changed, Buatsi said: “Not really because I still know that I have to fight Dan. I know that. Hopefully we cross the line and we do fight. Have my feelings changed? Not necessarily.
“One thing I haven’t done is go back to watch the videos. I’ve seen little titles saying ‘oh, Buatsi’s a diva’ he’s this, he’s that, but I have no interest in clicking and watching it. After the fight perhaps I might do, but right now we are fighting in less than two weeks.
“You can say anything you want about me, it doesn’t matter. But we’re going to fight in less than two weeks so that’s my mindset.”
Their war of words though will continue ahead of the fight. On February 1 Buatsi and Azeez will take part in the first ever live edition of The Gloves Are Off.
On the original postponement, Buatsi did admit: “It was hard, I’m not going to lie to you.” But he stressed that “I’m over that”.
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Dan Azeez talks about his back injury and the rumours surrounding why the fight with Joshua Buatsi was postponed.
Buatsi added: “My trainers, my coaches thankfully they are experienced. We had to make some adjustments. There were two camps back to back, this has been my third one, so we had to make sure that certain things that we did or didn’t do, we did. It’s been different but it has been very good and I’m really looking forward to next Saturday.”
And on the fight itself, Buatsi simply declared: “It’s show time.
“It’s time to see who’s No 1. There’s nothing else to do but to fight to see whose hand is going to be raised at the end of it,” he added.
“That’s all I’ve worked for and that’s what I’m looking forward to, so there’s not much to say. In the next week and a half there’s going to be a lot of interviews, a lot of media.
“I don’t know what to say to you guys. We are almost there. Let’s make sure the fight happens and then we’ll see what’s up.”
Watch Joshua Buatsi vs Dan Azeez live on Sky Sports on February 3