News

Joshua Buatsi Comfortably Outpoints Pawel Stepien In Flat Performance

Written by Kerr Ferguson on 6th May 2023.

Joshua Buatsi Pawel Stepien

Joshua Buatsi marked his BOXXER promotional debut by beating Pawel Stepien over ten rounds in a lacklustre showing.

Buatsi split with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom to link up with Ben Shalom’s outfit back in March, and thus finds himself back on Sky Sports after a brief stint on DAZN. In a pre-fight tape, he promised fans he would fight for a world title this year.

After a year out of the ring since his decision victory over Craig Richards, Buatsi didn’t light the place on fire, but never looked like losing control against a game but defensive Stepien.

The first bell rang in Birmingham and ‘JB’ got straight to work, edging his way in and connecting with the jab. Stepien entered the ring undefeated in 18, but his record lacks big scalps. Towards the end of the round he found success of his own, but Buatsi fired back with twice the intent.

Buatsi’s work to the body got the crowd going in the second. Stepien was in the fight, though, and Buatsi gave him a nod of approval after taking a shot just before the bell. Following orders from Virgil Hunter, Buatsi worked off the jab again in the third and took the round comfortably.

He threatened to let loose at the start of the fourth – what everybody wanted to see – but went back down a gear for the rest of the three minutes. The fifth followed the same pattern until Stepien had success to force some action. After the halfway point, there was nothing to shout about. Buatsi was winning, but highlight reel worthy it was not.

Stepien felt a Buatsi body shot in the seventh, but he got back to fighting after a little move around the ring. The same happened in the eighth, but the Ghanaian fighting out of London failed to capitalise.

The ninth passed without incident and, just like that, it was going the distance. Stepien was still fighting in the final round when Buatsi turned up the pressure. It lasted for all of thirty seconds, and it was jabs to see it out.

A tricky opponent who knows how to last, or a lacklustre and ring rusty performance from Buatsi? A bit of both, probably. He won it unanimously – 98-92, 97-94, 100-90.

Back to that world title promise, and it’s far from nailed on. Unified champion, Artur Beterbiev is set to face Callum Smith this summer, and Dmitry Bivol is rumoured to have a rematch with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez if the pair can agree a fight weight.

That leaves Buatsi most likely getting busy with his domestic rivals in Anthony Yarde, Lyndon Arthur and stablemate Dan Azeez. They all may just fancy it.

Whatever he does, it’s clear that any more fights like this will do very little in terms of hype or progression.

Elsewhere on the card, Lauren Price defeated Kirstie Bavington over the distance to become the first women’s British Champion, Ben Whittaker continued his development with a third round stoppage over Jordan Grant, Tyler Denny took it on the cards in a tight contest with Macaulay McGowan and Sean McComb beat Kaisee Benjamin in a back and forth battle.