Olympic medalist Joshua Buatsi cruised to a commanding Unanimous Decision victory at the Resorts World Arena, Birmingham and live on Sky Sports. The undefeated Light Heavyweight earned scorecards of 97-94, 98-92, and 100-90 from the judges, impressively shutting down a determined and heavy-handed opponent in Pawel Stepien.
Buatsi was measured and economical in the first half of the fight, feeling Stepien out as he shook off the cobwebs from over a year out of the ring and stopped Stepien from having any opportunity to land his dynamite right hand.
The Olympic medalist grew into the fight as the rounds went on, loosening up his offense and coming into range to trade punches more often, confident he could come out of any exchange the victor.
Stepien gave everything across the 10 rounds and did not come to lose, taking any chance he got to land shots across the rounds, stepping up the intensity in the second half of the fight and giving Buatsi plenty to think about. This offense from Stepien did give Buatsi chances to land some crunching shots to Stepien’s body that forced him to back away and shell up.
Despite 12 months out of the ring, Joshua Buatsi controlled the fight, and won every single round on one judge’s scorecard, on the way to an intelligent, dominant victory where he didn’t take any unnecessary risks that could have left any talk of challenging for a world championship in future in tatters.
Shrewd performances like this one are crucial for winning and retaining world championships, and that’s what Joshua Buatsi wants to do.
“I’ve been out of the ring for almost a year, so I needed the 10 rounds. I wanted to knock him out. I’m disappointed I didn’t, but we got the win.
“If I had lost it, everything would have changed, so I had to be smart,” Buatsi told Sky Sports after the fight.
Having removed the ring-rust from his extensive layoff and beaten a tough, previously-undefeated opponent, Buatsi is now in position for options ranging from huge domestic clashes to world title contention.
Lauren Price
Olympic Gold Medalist Lauren Price was able to add the first ever Womens’ British Championship to her collection in a whitewash, dominating victory over Kirstie Bavington. Price managed the distance of the fight perfectly as Bavington came forward and put her under pressure in every single round. Despite the pressure, Lauren Price was able to fire off brutal combinations as Bavington approached that left her bloodied and badly hurt.
Price looked somewhat close to a stoppage a few times in the later rounds of the fight, but stayed regimented in her approach and took no risks in a fight she was walking away with, making her first 10 round fight look like something she’d done a thousand times before.
Lauren Price made history again, after having done so before in Tokyo, with this victory, and went the Championship distance in only her 4th professional fight. She now looks certain to win World Championships in the professional ranks, with the only question being what could possibly slow her down.
Lauren Price said to Sky Sports after the fight: “I can’t put into words what this means. The olympics was a dream of mine, then I had to start all over again in the professional ranks. Now this was my 4th fight, first 10 rounder, and now I’m British champion. Kirstie made me work for it, she’s extremely fit and kept me on my toes all fight long.”
