Жошуа Буатси дэлхийн аваргын бүсний төлөө тулалдана

The display name “Champion” joins the call. Joshua Buatsi appears on screen.

He is sitting in his South London kitchen, refueling after a gym session. Dressed in a black tracksuit and matching cap, his scruffy, signature pre-fight beard gives his face a fuller look than the lean frame he will take into the ring just a week later for the 22nd fight of his professional career.

“That’s the plan,” he told Uncrowned with a wry smile, adding some context to his Zoom handle — not that it was needed.

But it hasn’t always been the plan.

Buatsi (20-1, 13 KOs) never set out to be a boxer. Not when he was growing up in Ghana, and not even after moving to England as a child.

Somewhere along the way, though, the sport found him. A decade after winning Olympic bronze at Rio 2016, the 33-year-old is on the verge of becoming a world champion — and, for a man who has spent much of his professional career waiting for this opportunity, the timing could hardly feel more significant.

On Saturday night in Manchester, England, Buatsi will face Willy Hutchinson (20-2, 14 KOs) for the second time — this time with the stakes heightened. The vacant WBC light heavyweight title is on the line inside the Manchester Arena, offering both men the opportunity to own a slice of the fruitful pie at the top of the 175-pound division.

“I never had a dream of being a boxer,” Buatsi said. “I didn’t grow up in this country thinking that way. I was 9 when I came to England, and it wasn’t remotely on my radar.”

It is a curious admission from someone who has spent the past decade making a living out of punching people in the face. But Buatsi has never been particularly interested in following somebody else’s blueprint.

He points to Filip Hrgović, the newly crowned IBF heavyweight world champion and a fellow Olympian from the same generation who took 10 years to reach the top. The Croatian is an example of how long the journey can take.

“Others do it quicker than yourself and others take longer,” Buatsi said. “But I’ve never been the type of guy to look at other people and how their stuff has gone and compare.”

His own route has hardly been straightforward. There were injuries, the disruption of COVID-19 and periods when he sat at the top of the governing bodies’ rankings without getting the world title opportunity he craved. Even after moving within touching distance, a shot at the interim WBA belt against Callum Smith ended in the first defeat of his professional career in Riyadh.

Now, after 21 fights and 20 victories, Buatsi has another chance. A rematch with Hutchinson, originally billed as a contest for the interim WBC title, has been elevated to a fight for the full championship.

It might not be the Hollywood script some boxers dream of — traveling to a champion’s backyard and claiming the crown. But Buatsi isn’t about to turn up his nose at the opportunity.

“The champion [David Benavidez] has moved away,” he said. “So what can you do? Hutchinson and I were fighting for the interim originally. It was then elevated. If there’s a slot because the champion is injured or moved on, you take it. I don’t care.

“I wasn’t convinced this opportunity would ever come my way. You can never be 100% sure. So for this one to kind of come out of the blue means I have to take advantage of it.”

For Buatsi, boxing has always been about more than what happens between the ropes. His religious faith is central to that outlook, providing a source of confidence and perspective in a sport that can often be consumed by ego, bravado and the business of hurting another man.

It is an interesting contrast. Here is a fighter preparing for one of the biggest nights of his life, yet he is just as comfortable discussing scripture as he is discussing strategy. His Instagram handle, Psalms 144:1, offers a fairly obvious clue.

The biblical passage speaks of God preparing hands for war and fingers for battle. Buatsi sees no contradiction in drawing strength from those words while pursuing a career in professional boxing.

“There’s so many scriptures that you can relate to,” he said. “Leading up to each camp and each fight, there’s always something new that I read in the Bible that I’m like, wow, that’s in the Bible, really?”

Buatsi is quick to dismiss any suggestion that faith means sitting back and waiting for things to fall into place. There are still early mornings, gruelling sessions, weight cuts and plenty of uncomfortable days in the gym. The work has to be done before any prayers can be answered.

His outlook was perhaps most evident after the defeat to Smith. While the first professional loss might have prompted others to question their surroundings or make wholesale changes, Buatsi found comfort in the familiarity of those closest to him.

There was no dramatic rebuilding job. No sudden realization that the people around him had been fair-weather friends. The same family and friends who had celebrated his victories were there to pick him up when things went wrong.

Instead, he took some time away from boxing, devoted himself to charity work and enjoyed a few months of normality before returning to the gym. It was a reminder that, for all the noise surrounding the sport, there is a life beyond it.

And it is that life — and the people within it — that Buatsi hopes to bring along for the ride should he finally become world champion.

“Winning this belt is way beyond me,” he said. “Every time I step in that ring it’s always beyond me. But after fighting Smith, I now know how tough I really am. A lot of us [boxers] think we are tough, but you can never be sure until you are tested. Whether that’s going to come in Round 1, Round 6 or whenever. Sometimes in sport, it’s about how you lose, and I’ve taken plenty from Riyadh.”

Buatsi speaks passionately about his roots in Ghana and the communities he has encountered along the way. He wants to return, spend time with people and make himself accessible, rather than become another sportsman who disappears behind the television appearances and social media following.

The WBC title, he believes, would give him a greater platform. A visit to a school, for example, might carry more weight if the person standing in front of the children has achieved something in the sport.

“If you’re the only beneficiary of your success, then to me, that’s not success,” he said. “There has to be a community, there has to be floods of people that benefit from what you do.”

It is a refreshing perspective. Buatsi wants the belt, naturally. But he also wants to make it count.

For now, though, there is one rather large obstacle standing between him and that ambition. Hutchinson has already shared 12 rounds with Buatsi and will have no intention of playing a supporting role in the Londoner’s story.

The first meeting was a bruising affair, with Buatsi emerging on the right side of a split decision, flooring the Scot twice. Hutchinson has never been entirely convinced by the verdict, and the opportunity to put things right — while becoming world champion in the process — is unlikely to require much selling.

“I’m expecting a better Hutchinson this time around,” he said. “That is natural when there is more on the line. But I know I have to do my job in the ring. I am not sure how one of the judges’ scored it for him [Hutchinson] in the first fight, so I need to use that as a reminder to make sure I do more than enough in there.”

If Buatsi is successful in becoming a world champion, he insists he will be eyeing the winner of Dmitry Bivol vs. Callum Smith next year in what could be for the undisputed title at light heavyweight. “If I win, plenty more doors will open and I’ve got more chances to make incredible memories in this sport,” he said. “And who would have thought that at the start of this journey? Not me.”

For now, Buatsi believes any pressure on him is a privilege — he tells me that on Saturday night he has “business to handle”. Any celebrations on Saturday night would involve all of his family, some whose existence he’s only recently been made aware of through social-media messages. “Are you that boxer from the United Kingdom?” his distant cousin wrote just a few months back.

He sure is. Even if that’s still somewhat of a surprise to his younger self.