JOSHUA Buatsi knows that a fight against Dan Azeez makes sense but has again denied it was his motivation to join up with the same promoter.
Azeez, the current European light-heavyweight champion, joined Boxxer in March 2022 and has since won four fights on the spin.
Buatsi, formerly with Matchroom, put pen to paper with the same stable one year later and makes his debut for Ben Shalom on Saturday night against Pawel Stepien in Birmingham, live on Sky Sports.
A fight between Buatsi and Azeez makes perfect sense, but the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist says moving to Boxxer and Sky was not about an opportunity to fight his friend.
“I think the narrative that was put out there was I moved to Boxxer just to fight Dan. It’s a lie,” he told Boxing News.
“Dan and I are good friends. When you look at the [WBA] rankings, last time I checked I was number one, he was number two. So, if a number one and number two fight no-one will say anything. But just because me and Dan Azeez know each other people are going to say something and put out false narratives that are ‘Oh I’ve gone over to Sky because I’ve wanted to fight Dan’. No. It’s a fight that could happen. Hopefully all these fights with the light heavies can happen but that was not the primary reason or secondary reason for me going to Boxxer.”
BN then asked Buatsi if he a fight between himself and Azeez would make sense.
“Course, because then it means the winner will get a crack at the title. Why not.”