Edwards, Buatsi, Okolie: A Quality Night for Britain’s Young Stars!

Edwards, Buatsi, Okolie:  A Quality Night for Britain’s Young Stars!

By Jack Price 

It was all smiles for British fighters Charlie Edwards, Joshua Buatsi and Lawrence Okolie as the three young stars got the victory in each of their title fights at the CopperBox Arena in London live on Sky Sports in some exciting Saturday night action.

Okolie was the first of the three to take to the ring in a fight for the British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles against Wadi Camacho. It was a fight he was expected to win and do so emphatically but other than the knockout finish he didn’t really do so in my opinion. It was another awkward, scrappy contest, something that has been becoming typical of Okolie lately. There was more holding and wrestling than punching once again. After three scrappy rounds Okolie eventually managed to find the finishing shot in the 4th and knocked Camacho out.

On paper it looks like another good win for Okolie but in terms of action, excitement and putting on a show for the fans he is slacking a lot at the moment. In my opinion, he’s going to have to make a few changes to his style if he wants to be in big fights and be a big star in the future because at the minute there’s not a lot of people who are going to want to see him in action. Saying that though, he is now British and Commonwealth champion after just 12 fights so whilst it isn’t all that exciting, he must be doing something right.

Buatsi was next up and there wasn’t any doubt about him impressing and bringing the excitement once again. For me the Olympic bronze medallist is the brightest prospect we have in Britain right now and his 3rd round win over Liam Conroy further supports this. Conroy was meant to be the Londoner’s toughest test so far but he proved easy work as Buatsi just walked him down and sparked him out with a massive right hand halfway through the 3rd. Buatsi is now the British light-heavyweight champion after just 10 fights and this looks like just the beginning for him!

The main event of the evening saw WBC flyweight champion Edwards make the first defence of his title against tough Spaniard Angel Moreno. This was Edwards’ first time headlining a show and boy did he take the opportunity! The 26-year old didn’t put a single step wrong for the entire 12 rounds of the fight and cruised to victory with a career-best performance.

Moreno was tough and didn’t stop coming forward but it was all easy work for Edwards and although it may have not been the hardest type of opponent to look good against he made sure he was on point constantly and still made it exciting to watch. The scorecards were 120-107 across the board showing just how dominant he was.

Its onwards and upwards now for Edwards. There’s bigger and better tests out there for him and while I was a bit sceptical about him in the past, I believe he’s ready for them now. Domestically you’ve got the likes of Andrew Selby and Kal Yafai in and around his weight which would be huge fights for British boxing and great for the lighter weights to get some more spotlight. And worldwide you’ve got unification fights with Artem Dalakian, Moruti Mthalane and Kosei Tanaka which would all be very hard fights for him but also very winnable if he continues to improve like he has done. The future looks very bright indeed for Charlie Edwards!

Photo Credit: Action Images