Ringside Report: Buatsi Beats Azeez in Wembley Thriller

Ringside Report: Buatsi Beats Azeez in Wembley Thriller

It was a good night for Boxxer on Saturday night at that old iconic Wembley Arena. In truth, it was a very good night for Ben Shalom and his team.

The three fighters whom Shalom and Sky have pinned their hopes on for future riches, all won on a thoroughly entertaining undercard. Caroline Dubois, Ben Whittaker, and Adam Azim all recorded wins in different ways and will march on to what promoter and broadcaster hope is a golden PPV future. Heavy financial investment that looks good business sense right now. Dubois, Whittaker, and Azim are very much the future, but it is the present that will have left all concerned extremely happy as they departed that old arena or switched off their TV sets on Saturday night.

Dan Azeez and Joshua Buatsi went to war and served up an unforgettable fight between two unbeaten fighters, that Buatsi won wide on the cards, but those scorecards only tell a partial part of their engrossing brutal affair.

Buatsi beat his old friend by scores of 116-110,117-109 & 117-109 in their final eliminator for the WBA world light-heavyweight title. The winner also walked away with the British and Commonwealth titles.

Azeez lost his unbeaten record and his titles to Buatsi, but he again showed what a truly remarkable fighter he is. But he found Buatsi, just a little bit too much for him. Just that little bit of extra something that separates exceptionally good domestic fighters from genuine world title contenders. Buatsi has proved beyond doubt, that he is exactly that.

Buatsi started the better. Sharper and more variety and flexibility in his work. I had him in a big lead as the fight moved towards the final five rounds. But Azeez wouldn’t go anywhere despite absorbing some terrific power shots from Buatsi. Some of the exchanges were breathtaking in their ferocity, and you just wondered if Buatsi would fade down the stretch in the closing rounds with Azeez pulling off a quite remarkable comeback victory.

But while Azeez certainly partially closed the gap, at least on my ringside card, the 11th removed all doubt. A slippery canvas played its part when Azeez was ruled the victim of two debatable knockdowns. Azeez claimed he slipped. Many sympathised with him. That round removed any lingering thoughts of an Azeez victory.

Azeez went for broke in the 12th. Buatsi, you sensed could have ended it. But he showed compassion for the brave warrior who had brought something out of him we hadn’t seen before. At the final bell, the two fighters hugged. The crowd gave them a fitting and well-deserved standing ovation. For the second show running in 2024, Boxxer has a Fight of the Year contender.

Boxxer has plenty to look forward to this year. The grudge fight for the British heavyweight title was announced for March. Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke have an extremely hard act to follow. But Boxxer has certainly hit the ground running in 2024.

Azeez will be back. Buatsi will have to be patient. At some point in 2024, Ben Whittaker might be staring at him from the opposite corner. But for now, he deserves his moment after a difficult year or so in many ways. But we shouldn’t forget the contribution Dan Azeez made in an unforgettable fight that brought back wonderful faded memories of John Conteh and Chris Finnegan, who did their thing in that very same arena from another time. They would have been proud and a little jealous of what we saw last night. It was a special night.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer