World-rated light heavyweight Joshua Buatsi 15-0 (13) scored a scintillating 11th round knockout of Richard ‘The Lion’ Bolotniks 18-6-1 (8) at Matchroom Fight Camp in Brentwood, Essex in England on Saturday night.
Latvian Bolotniks, 31, came to fight, but Buatsi has his measure in their WBA 175-pound elimination fight.
The 28-year-old Buatsi of London by way of Accra, Ghana busted up Bolotnik’s eyes and had him down once in the sixth and again in the 11th prior to the stoppage. He was deducted a point for low blows in the eighth.
A big right hand from Buatsi finished the fight at the 2:08 mark of the penultimate round.
The victory is expected to lead Buatsi to a world title shot against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol 18-0 (11). The 30-year-old Russian by way of Kyrgyzstan was last in action in May when he outpointed Craig Richard 16-2-1 (9) at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Buatsi was pleased with his performance against the hardnosed Bolotniks.
“Most importantly I have to thank God for the victory, different fighters have different things that work for them, I made it clear to you lot that that’s what works for me,” WBA number two ranked contender Buatsi told DAZN.
“In my changing room I don’t need to hear anything, don’t tell me what I did in camp, tell me Josh is written in the bible. That’s what gears me up when I walk down there, what’s written in the bible.
“I’m grateful man. Bolotniks, big credit to him, he pushed me. I think he said Josh hasn’t been past seven rounds before so after seven we’ll see. I was there until 11 and landed a good shot. I worked every round, but I want to congratulate him – he’s a good champion.
“When I sat down, I said, ‘Buatsi who told you to empty the tank, you’ve got six left?’ but I’ve worked hard. You see in camp the sparring is hard man, big credit to my sparring partners they know who they are. I do a hard six run then a fresh one gets in so into the second half I said I’ve been here: I’ve done it before I’ve been here many times in camp.
“I’ve got a great team, I’ve got a promoter that believes in me, he’s been pushing for fights like this because he knows I can do it. Tonight, I went out there and showed people I can do it, we just build from here.
“We all make sacrifices, I don’t want to single myself out, everyone sacrifices to be where they want to be in life. For me, yeah, I sacrificed, I’m always away from my family and I truly miss them but most importantly I want to get to the top.
“I feel like I’m in the right team with the right people, I’ve got a great promoter who gives me the opportunities I need. I’ll keep sacrificing.”
