THE RESULT: In the tip, Joshua Buatsi clinched this long-awaited south London derby and the British and Commonwealth titles moderately comfortably on the playing cards. Marcus McDonnell scored it 116-110 in Buatsi’s favour whereas each Howard Foster and Michael Alexander had him a wider winner at 117-109 to cement this unanimous determination.
KEY MOMENTS: There was aggressive motion all through all 12 rounds with quite a lot of excessive flash points. However the end result was primarily secured through the eleventh spherical when Azeez was floored twice. The Lewisham man insisted that each had been a results of the slippery canvas however there isn’t any doubting he had been legitimately hit within the first place. He then did very properly to dangle powerful throughout a brutal twelfth spherical.
RECORDS: Buatsi stays undefeated and strikes to 18-0 with 13 KOs whereas Azeez is now 20-1 (13) after struggling this the primary defeat of his profession.
TALKING POINT: The slippery canvas emerged as an issue through the eighth and was routinely wiped between rounds nevertheless it appeared to play an enormous half for each males, who had been usually dropping their footing through the second half of the battle. Azeez was adamant it performed an element for each knockdowns so would this battle have panned out in another way down the stretch on a distinct, dryer canvas?
QUOTABLE: The victor Buatsi stated: “I’m not happy to be taking his belts all I wanted was the No.1 slot. It was a pleasure to share the ring with Dan. Our pride was on the line here, Dan made me fight for every second.”
Azeez stated: “I guess he was the better man today. He came and performed. He’s a great athlete and I respect him a lot. He has helped me a lot. It was just business today. We will see what the future holds. He’s won tonight and he deserves what comes next for him.”
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Azeez, now with out his British and Commonwealth titles, will probably drop down to home degree the place quite a lot of large names like Craig Richards and Lyndon Arthur might present superb fights for him to come again to. It is probably going that Callum Smith and Anthony Yarde will battle one another this summer season so it most likely wouldn’t be both of them. For Buatsi, he’ll now wait to see who wins between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol in Saudi Arabia on June 1 after which hope to arrange a shot on the winner.
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