Light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi 18-0 (13) is willing to risk a guaranteed world title shot in a big domestic matchup against Anthony Yarde 24-3 (23).
Britain’s Buatsi, 30, is fresh off a 12-round unanimous decision win over Dan Azeez 20-1 (13) at Wembley Arena in London last Saturday night.
The victory consolidated his position at the leading contender to the winner of the four belt unification clash between WBC, WBO and IBF champion Artur Beterbiev 20-0 (20) and WBA counterpart Dmitry Bivol 22-0 (11) which is expected to take place in Saudi Arabia on June 1.
With a world title shot unlikely until the last quarter of the year, Buatsi said he would welcome the opportunity to face the heavy-handed Yarde, 32, in the interim.
“As I said before the [Azeez] fight the winner will be in a very good position so I’m glad I came out on top. It puts me in a very good position,” Buatsi told Sky Sports.
“I want to keep active and, before you ask me, yes I’m still interested in a Yarde fight. If that proposes itself and it’s a good one and my team and I think it’s good, we’ll take that fight too.
“Absolutely. As long as the numbers are right and my team feels it’s right, absolutely.
“The Yarde one, people have been looking forward to and talking about it for a long time. This boxing game’s a dangerous one but if the fight proposes itself and everything is good, I will definitely take it.”
Britain’s Yarde returns to action this Saturday night when he takes on Marko Nikolic 32-3 (12) over 10 rounds at the Copper Box Arena in London.
It will be his second fight back since his strong showing in his world title shot against Beterbiev. Yarde was stopped in the eighth round but was leading on two of the judges’ scorecards at the time.
“For myself, I feel like I’m in a very, very good position for big fights,” Yarde said. “Buatsi is one of them big fights. Callum Smith now, again, that’s another big fight.
“The difference with someone like Callum Smith is that he’s fought world champions, the biggest name in boxing, [undisputed super middleweight champion Saul] Canelo [Alvarez]. Beterbiev walked through him [Smith]. That gave me a lot of credit. I feel like that’s another potentially big fight.”
Yarde said he would even consider a move up to cruiserweight to challenge WBO 200-pound champion Chris Billam-Smith 19-1 (13).
“To be honest with you, even this cruiserweight thing, that Chris Billam-Smith, people have been talking about that,” he said. “Again, everybody knows me. I don’t shy away from facts. That’s just not how I’m built. If the fights make sense, we can make it happen.”
But it is the Buatsi fight that makes the most sense for Yarde.
“I said it on Sky Sports, they were talking about the fight, so I said, ‘Yeah. If he [Buatsi] wins the fight [against Dan Azeez], hopefully, he and me can get it crackin’,” said Yarde.
