Joshua Buatsi vs Craig Richards Preview

Two of Britain's top light heavyweights are set to put it all on the line at the O2 Arena this Saturday night, when Joshua Buatsi (15-3 13KOs) comes up against Craig Richards (17-2-1 10KOs) live and exclusive on DAZN.

Rio 2016 Bronze medalist, Joshua Buatsi looks to continue his charge for world honours this weekend in his home city against the former World title challenger Craig Richards.

Craig 'Spider' Richards comes in to this fight as a big underdog, but the bookies odds never really tell the full story. Richards put in a solid performance against WBA Light Heavyweight champion Dimitry Bivol, but ultimately came up short and lost on a unanimous decision. 

Joshua Buatsi has been one of the hottest prospects in world boxing since his anticipated debut in 2016 and since he linked up with trainer, Virgil Hunter, Buatsi has had his eyes on world honours. He had a fight in December fall through with Maxim Vlasov, meaning he will be out of the ring for over 9 months come fight night.

Back at fight camp in August, Buatsi came up against Ricard Bolotniks in his so called 'acid' test. Buatsi secured an eleventh round stoppage victory over the Latvian fighter. However, 'JB' didn't have it all his own way in the bout. He got caught with some big shots that in world level fights you can't take. 

'We're yet to see any fight he's been in that's a 50/50' Said Richards in the face to face programme on DAZN.

Craig Richards believes he has earned to be the guy domestically in the division and feels Buatsi has been put there by Eddie Hearn and hasn't yet warranted his place.

'I wouldn't dub it as the hardest test, for me, it's just the most important fight in my career right now. It's the next fight, the fight I must win, last time with Bolotniks but this time it's Spider. I'll prepared as diligently as I do, come May 21 I'll be ready.' Said Buatsi speaking on his upcoming fight.

Full Undercard

Alen Babic vs. Adam Balski; Heavyweight

Robbie Davies Jr. vs. Javier Molina; for Davies' WBA Continental super lightweight title

Chantelle Cameron vs. Victoria Moelia Bustos; WBC and IBF world super lightweight titles

Ellie Scotney vs. Maria Cecilia Roman; for Scotney's WBA Intercontinental super bantamweight title

Cheavon Clarke vs. Pawel Martyniuk; Cruiserweight

John Hedges vs. Robert Balturu; Light-heavyweight

Shiloh Defreitas vs. Iliyan Markov; Welterweight

Cyrus Pattinson vs. Dimitri Trenei; Welterweight

Where to watch, Ring walk times & stream info

Date : Saturday, May 21

Time : 7 p.m. BST / 2 p.m. ET 

Main event ringwalks (approx):  10.15 p.m. BST / 5.15 p.m. ET

The main card is set to get underway at 7 p.m. BST / 2 p.m. ET  with the main event ringwalks scheduled for 10.15 p.m. BST / 5.15 p.m. ET. These timings could change due to the length of the undercard fights.

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