Joshua Buatsi is the bookies favourite to defeat Dan Azeez
On Saturday, February 3, two top light-heavyweights Joshua Buatsi (17-0, 13KO) and ‘Super’ Dan Azeez (19-0, 13KO) will cast their long-term friendship aside to do battle at The O2 in London for the British and Commonwealth titles, live and exclusively on Sky Sports.
Both Brits started out in the same South London amateur boxing club and, despite going their separate ways, they have now gone full circle to once again come together in what is expected to be one of the most 50/50 fights of 2024.
Shared sparring partner and WBO World cruiserweight champion, Chris Billam-Smith, was the perfect person to provide his opinion on how this fight could go.
The Bournemouth boxer told Boxing News who he believes could win and why: “If he turns up and the best Buatsi turns up… and I wasn’t going to give a prediction, but if I think the best, very best Buatsi turns up, I think he can beat Dan.”
“The Gentleman” added: “I love both guys, I’ve sparred both guys, but we have seen Buatsi flat at times, and if he does look flat… I know what Dan’s like to spar, you’ve seen in his fights, he breaks people down and it’s not a nice place to be with that sort of pressure. He’s got decent punch power; he’s not like a one-punch knockout artist, but every punch has got weight. He can be a one-punch knockout artist, in a sense of like he can knock someone out with one punch, but it’s just all of them are ‘thuddy’, and you feel them all.
“You can’t give him any shots, so if Josh starts taking a few shots on the gloves or letting a few get through, then he’s got a great chin, but they’re going to take their toll, so that’s why it’s a 50/50 fight, and it’s a pick ’em fight, but I think if the best of both turn up, I think Josh edges it.”