Ricards Bolotniks has always believed he would fight Joshua Buatsi one day and this weekend gets to do so.
The Latvian light-heavyweight clash is the headline act for the third and final week of Fight Camp at Matchroom HQ and Bolotniks wants the anticipated bout to be a bit of everything.
“I want it to be a street fight, a boxing match, I want to show everything that I have got so that I can go back to the dressing room afterwards and say ‘yes, we did it’, I want that feeling,” he told Matchroom.
The 2020 MTK Golden Contract light-heavyweight tournament winner is on a roll and hasn’t tasted defeat in three years (losing to Thabiso Mchunu in six rounds). Wins against Steven Ward, Hosea Burton and Serge Michel have taken him well inside the top ten of three of the four governing bodies.
“Every fighter gets better the more fights that they have, he’s [Buatsi] improved but so have I”, says Bolotniks.
“I only fight for my family, for my country and my coach – and money! But I am not the kind of guy to say that I don’t fight for money, just belts – I need to buy food and to pay for the house, petrol for the car, clothes for me wife – so of course the money is important. But my family believe in me so much and that drives me on so much.
“I only think about Joshua, so I don’t want to think about the future. I am well ranked in the governing bodies so of course I look at the champions and the belts, and my wife likes the WBC belt, she wants me to win that! But we need to do our job on Saturday night and then the future will sort itself out.”
Main image: MTK Global