Joshua Buatsi's year-long absence from the ring is over, and the undefeated light-heavyweight prospect is now targeting big things — including former world champion Sergey Kovalev.
Buatsi (13-0, 11 KOs) recovered from a rough early spell to stop Croatia's Marko Calic in the seventh round of the main event of Sunday's Matchroom Boxing card in Milton Keynes.
After the win, Buatsi told William Hill that not only is domestic rival Anthony Yarde (20-1, 19 KOs) a potential opponent in the future, but that he'd also defeat the only man to blemish Yarde's professional record so far in Russia's Kovalev (34-4, 29 KOs).
“Sitting here now, feeling good to fight, I’ll tell you straight: I would have taken him out,” Buatsi said.
“But that’s me sitting here saying it, it would be almost different in the moment. But sitting here now, I’ll say I would have handled it.
“But I commend Kovalev for enduring what he went through and then Yarde for stepping up and almost getting it done [last year].”
Yarde was stopped in the 11th of 12 rounds against Kovalev in a bout for the division's WBO championship. But Buatsi admits he came close to a huge win.
He continued: “Yarde was very, very unlucky, he almost got it right. I watched that fight, I even sent him a message saying: ‘Unlucky bro, you just fell short.’
"So very, very unlucky, and I rate him for that. It didn’t go in his favour but he took the chance so I have to rate that.”
Buatsi vs. Yarde is one of the best proposed match-ups of a possible future working relationship between Buatsi's promoter Eddie Hearn and Yarde's matchmaker Frank Warren. The two rival promoters finally made direct communications with one another last month with a view to potentially collaborating in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There remain many obstacles to such an agreement, as Buatsi pointed out. But the Ghana-born Londoner refuses to rule out a future showdown with Yarde.
He said: “It’s hard to say — I’m with Eddie [Hearn], he’s with Frank [Warren]. I think that’s the main elephant in the room.
“It’s obvious — different promoters, different broadcasters — so will they merge? Would Sky let me box on BT, would BT let him box on Sky?
"Unless we end up with the same promoters or someone has a world title or someone is a mandatory, that’s the only way I can see it happening.
“But next year, I’m not sure. But at times like this, things change quick — last-minute deals are being made, things that you wouldn’t expect to happen are happening, and people with different promoters have fought before. But would it happen next year? It’s hard to say."