Joshua Buatsi says he turned down an offer from Floyd Mayweather after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, choosing to stay in London rather than head to the States. The decision still hangs over a career that now brings him back into a major title fight, with Willy Hutchinson waiting again on Saturday night.
Buatsi, who won bronze in Rio, says the offer came after Mayweather had come down to watch him, though he added that he does not think that part is all true. What mattered to him then was simpler: he was not much of a fan of the States, London was where he spent all of his time, and he wanted to be at home, train, focus and stay around the people he grew up with.
That choice has become part of the story of where he is now. Ten years have passed since he lit up Brazil, and he is due to face Hutchinson again at the AO Arena in Manchester, UK, in a rematch for the WBC light heavyweight world championship. Buatsi won the first meeting on points after dropping Hutchinson twice, a result that gave him the upper hand but not the sense that the job is complete.
He is preparing as though the next fight will look different. Buatsi said a lot was said before, during and after the first bout that did not line up with what happened in the ring, and he knows what to expect from Hutchinson now. That is why he and his team have trained for a better version, not for the fighter they already beat.
The open question is not whether Buatsi can draw on what he learned before. It is whether the version of Hutchinson he expects on Saturday night will force him to prove, once again, that the road he chose in London was the right one.
