'Fight days are for fighting, not chatting to each other'

This Saturday, Joshua Buatsi will share a card with his friend Anthony Joshua for the fourth time, boxing Willy Hutchinson for an interim title at Wembley. Alex Pattle gets the lowdown

-  Alex Pattle

When Joshua Buatsi arrives at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, there will be no seeking out familiar faces – not even a face as familiar as Anthony Joshua’s.

And to Buatsi, Joshua’s face is even more familiar than it is to the average boxing fan. The two Joshuas have been good friends for years, and Saturday will mark the fourth time they have shared a fight card. In 2017 and 2018, Buatsi competed on the undercard of “AJ”’s victories over Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker, at Principality Stadium in Cardiff. In 2019, Buatsi was there at Madison Square Garden to do a job when Joshua, for the first time in his professional career, failed to do his own and lost to Andy Ruiz Jr.

And on Saturday, Buatsi will be there again, facing Willy Hutchinson at Wembley before Joshua headlines against Daniel Dubois, the reigning IBF heavyweight champion.

Still, there won’t be time for niceties. “We’re very much in our own lanes [on those days],” Buatsi tells The Independent. “I understand that he’s got something to do, I’ve got something to do. It’s not time to be chatting to each other – it’s not time to be talking to a lot of people, bro. When it’s time to fight, I don’t want to have pointless conversations with someone, so I won’t have a pointless conversation with another boxer either.”