Joshua Buatsi and Dan Azeez’s light-heavyweight bout was rescheduled for Saturday, February 3 at Wembley’s OVO Arena. The undefeated duo will compete in a world title final eliminator to earn a shot at WBA champion Dmitry Bivol. Due to limited availability, the bout has been rescheduled from London’s O2 Arena.
“I’m excited to get a new date locked in. There’s definitely some unfinished business. The delay has only made me more determined. It’s a very important fight,” said Buatsi.
Dan Azeez(20-0, 13KOs) from England and Joshua Buatsi(17-0, 13KOs)from Ghana, who are pals outside of the ring, first met at the same south London amateur boxing club.
“I’m really glad to have recovered. My back feels better than ever and I can’t wait,” said Azeez.
Boxxer Promotions attempted to reschedule the fight for January 13 at the O2 Arena; however, the date conflicted with Callum Smith’s world title challenge to Artur Beterbiev, the Canadian light-heavyweight champion, who has titles from the WBC, IBF, and WBO. Smith of Liverpool is trained by Buddy McGirt, who is also Azeez’s coach.
“It’s a fight everyone is looking forward to following the disappointment of the postponement in October. We wanted to get the fight back on as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the only available date at the O2 was 13 January, which would leave Dan Azeez without his coach for his biggest fight, so we’ve secured the next available date,” said Ben Shalom Boxxer chief executive.
Ben Whittaker hopes to win his first professional championships in the upcoming year and plans to challenge the winner of the Joshua Buatsi vs. Dan Azeez bout.
“That’s who we’re heading for. You can never know what’s going on in this sport but domestically, it’s really good,” said Whittaker in media reports.
“You’ve got so many names. So for me of course you’re going to head for the winner, the winner of that, not the loser. But either or, the winner or the loser is still a great name for the fans as well. So it’ll be good hopefully,” he added.
“The British, it would be good to tick that one off, British, maybe European,” said Whittaker regarding the belts he is aiming for.
