Britain’s light heavyweight star Joshua Buatsi has a new trainer, one that will be familiar to fans of Andre Ward and Amir Khan.
The soothing tones of Virgil Hunter will now be in the corner of the undefeated contender who has left Britain to train in California.
Buatsi told Sky Sports that part of his reasoning to team up with Hunter was because he liked the trainer’s style and revealed that Ward contacted him when he was last out in the States.
“It’s mainly the style I like. Each of his fighters translate to it differently.
“Ward got to the highest level and achieved everything and is someone who operated at my weight. Ward messaged me to ask where I’m living, where I’m staying. Last time I was he here he came to see me.”
Hunter helped take Ward to the pinnacle of the sport winning the Super Six World Boxing Classic at super middleweight ten years ago. The American outpointed Britain’s Carl Froch in the final to become unified champion before moving up to light heavyweight where he captured three of the four titles which included two wins over the then fearsome Sergey Kovalev.
Buatsi, who initially met Hunter in New York at the first fight between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr, describes Hunter as very calm, strategic, very positive and optimistic.
“If I don’t get something right away, it’s not the end of the world. He has the right mindset. This addition to the team will 100 per cent bring the best out of me.”
Buatsi is expected to headline a Matchroom show when he returns to the ring in May.
Boxing Social recently interviewed Buatsi and you can read the in-depth feature here.