As the clock ticks down towards the mammoth Joshua-Dubois card at Wembley Stadium next month, tensions are beginning to rise not only in the main-event but also in the undercard bouts. Now, Willy Hutchinson has opened up on a sparring session of the past, claiming to have given upcoming opponent Joshua Buatsi ‘the biggest hiding of his life’.
Hutchinson turned professional off of the back of solid amateur pedigree in 2017 and built up serious momentum before challenging for the British super-middleweight title in 2021, where he was shockingly stopped by Lennox Clarke. Since then, the Scotsman has made the jump up to the light-heavyweight division and has looked far more comfortable, knocking out four of his five opponents since.
That success has seen Hutchinson invited onto a Turki Al-Alshikh card for a second time, this time taking on Olympic bronze medallist Joshua Buatsi for the WBO interim title.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Hutchinson declared that he had battered the Londoner in a spar around five years ago, despite being 20-years-old.
A sparring story between Willy Hutchinson & Joshua Buatsi has emerged 🍿👀#JoshuaDubois x #BuatsiHutchinson | Sept 21 | #RiyadhSeasonpic.twitter.com/oFfxkfCIIj
— Sky Sports Boxing (@SkySportsBoxing) August 23, 2024
“We sparred five years ago. I gave him the biggest hiding of his life five years ago, when I was only 20-years-old. Listen, sparring is sparring but Joshua Buatsi is just exactly where I need him in there, in that pocket, and that is where he will be staying.”
Meanwhile, British light-heavyweight champion Buatsi seemed genuinely confused by Hutchinson’s comments, stating that he and ‘The Hutch Train’ have never shared the ring.
“You watch interviews and clips of other fighters when they are trash talking and you are thinking ‘one of them is lying, who is it? But I didn’t think that I would be in a position where someone would say, ‘I beat you up in sparring’, and I am like ‘bro it is a lie’. He is dead serious about it and I am like ‘we were not in the ring together, what are you talking about?’.
“I found it funny, but I was like ‘you are lying’. I have never been in this situation where someone is saying what didn’t happen in sparring, but they are dead serious that it happened.”
However, speaking with Boxing King Media before Hutchinson’s fight with Craig Richards, well-respected trainer Shane McGuigan appeared to confirm the legitimacy of Hutchinson’s story, before predicting that Buatsi would ‘run through’ his rival if they were to ever meet in a professional ring.
“Joshua Buatsi is a fantastic fighter. Willy Hutchinson stood Joshua Buatsi on his head during sparring, he is brilliant in the gym is Willy Hutchinson, but would he be able to stand him on his head in a 12-round fight? Absolutely not. I think that Joshua Buatsi would run through him and I think that Craig Richards is going to do the same as well.”
McGuigan was of course wrong in his forecast that Richards would prove too much for Hutchinson earlier this summer, but whether Buatsi can silence the loud-mouthed switch-hitter will be discovered when they meet on September 21st.
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