Joshua Buatsi is determined to defeat Dan Azeez when they box on their new date of February 3. Buatsi will forfeit his Christmas in order to defeat Azeez, as he will be starting his training camp in the USA this week and won't return to
London until fight week. This is because of the "sucker punch" of the first cancellation.October 21 was Buatsi's boxing date with Azeez. However, the latter's back issue forced him to withdraw the week before the battle.
The battle has now been postponed for February 3, defying Buatsi's hopes to reschedule it before the end of the year.
Along with coach Virgil Hunter, he will go for an American training camp and not return to London until it's fight time.
It adds a new dimension to Buatsi's training for his bout with his former sparring buddy turned foe. He said to Sky Sports, "There's definitely a frustration tied to it now." "In any case, there's been an addition to the struggle now. More vim, rather than spite, is what I would suggest.
"I feel like I paid the price to win on October 21st, therefore that's why it was included.
"Cash: 100 percent. Time: We spent months there, of course. And effort—there was a lot of sweating, blood flowing, and blood pouring in."
Missing Christmas is another element to chalk up in the debit column.
The upcoming camp will be tough. "It's going to be a hard one. One that I have to do and get through and puts me in a good place going into the fight on February 3. But it's going to be a hard one for sure," he said.
An unaccustomed anger, after the cancellation, will fuel him. "When there's something on the horizon everything else blacks out and I focus on that date. So sometimes the disappointment hits me very hard if something doesn't go according to plan because I've focused on it for months and months and months," Buatsi explained.
"A sucker punch. I didn't see it coming.
Another thing to put in the debit column is missing Christmas.
The next camp is going to be difficult. It is going to be challenging. One that I must complete and puts me in a strong position for the battle on February 3. But I'm sure it will be difficult," he remarked.
After the cancellation, an unfamiliar rage will fuel him. "Everything else fades away when there's anything approaching, and I concentrate on that date. Because I've been working on something for months on end, when things doesn't work out as planned, sometimes the disappointment hits me really hard," Buatsi said.
"A knockout blow. I was not prepared for that. We can always be upset by many things but that for me was very upsetting, with the reasoning of why it happened. It came four days before.
"There's so many conspiracy theories online. There's so many ideas and thoughts of what could have happened, it was a hard pill to swallow just because it was so close to the fight. I was still dieting, I was still making weight, still being careful with everything as it was just the finishing touches of camp. For it not to have gone ahead. It was so hard, so, so hard."
But he reflected: "We fight February 3 and we make sure we get the win."
Buatsi however does expect to use the extra camp productively.
"There will be a lot of time off but it's just going to give me more time to get better at certain things," he said. "More time to practise, train and get things right.
"As the student that I am, I make sure I give as much time as I can to this craft so I learn quicker and improve at a rate that I'm happy with."
Buatsi might have sparred Azeez for years, but he is adamant that the Lewisham man has not seen everything he's capable of.
"He's experienced me having a scrap, having a tear up and he's experienced me when I'm tactically trying to do something. I just feel like, for a while since we sparred, I've learned so much more," Buatsi said. "New things that he hasn't seen from me.
"I will box but I will also fight. I'm not someone that only knows how to do one style. I've shown fights where I come out and I'm purely boxing, for example my fight against [Pawel] Stepien. And other fights where I'm prepared to fight from the get go and we can handle business and get straight to the job and what it is that I want to do, which to win by knockout."
As he develops, as his defensive skills get better with Virgil Hunter, he believes that makes him more dangerous.
"You have to learn to protect yourself. I knew a few ways to protect myself before I joined Virgil. Now I have many ways of doing it so overall I feel a lot safer when I'm in the ring," he explained.
"It's for me to then blend in the violence that they want to see and do it where I'm protected as a person as well. Because boxing doesn't care about the individual. You're just there to put on a show then you go home. Some people leave that show, leaving a part of themselves in the ring.
"How you win and stuff like that is important. We love the knockout reels and everything. As a person and as a 'commodity' wanting to get bigger, we know that draws attention so we've got to do both.
"You are there to entertain, but you have a job to do," he continued. "Get the job done. The job first and foremost is always to win."
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