Willie Hutchinson Outpoints Joshua Buatsi For WBC Belt

Willy Hutchinson won the vacant WBC world light heavyweight title at Manchester’s AO Arena on Saturday night, beating Joshua Buatsi by unanimous decision over 12 rounds. Phil Austin and David Irving each scored it 115 to 113, while Mark Lyson had it 117 to 112, all for the Scot. Buatsi had put Hutchinson down twice at Wembley two years ago. In Manchester, he spent much of the evening trying to get close enough to do it once.

The rematch topped Frank Warren’s Queensberry card on DAZN and was originally arranged for the interim championship. It became a fight for the full title when David Benavidez vacated to continue at cruiserweight. Buatsi weighed 174.9 pounds and Hutchinson 174.5. The upper tier was closed, but the crowd below made its preference plain. Hutchinson walked in to cheers, and Buatsi was booed before the opening bell.

Buatsi’s split decision at Wembley had earned him the interim WBO title. He floored Hutchinson in the sixth and ninth, and CompuBox counted 150 body punches from Buatsi that night. Since then, the Londoner, a bronze medallist at the Rio Olympics, had lost a decision and the interim belt to Callum Smith and taken a disputed majority verdict over Zach Parker. Hutchinson, a world junior amateur champion from Carstairs, had stopped Mark Jeffers and beaten Ezra Taylor on points. The Scot, at 28, was five years younger and looked it as soon as the pair had to move.

Buatsi went to the body from the start, but Hutchinson soon made him pay for the ground he had to cover. A punch knocked Buatsi’s gumshield loose in the first. By the second, Hutchinson was finding angles for counters as well as starting exchanges himself, and in the third he jolted Buatsi with a left after switching to southpaw. The changes of stance made the lead hand harder to read. When Buatsi followed him in a straight line, Hutchinson could land, move off and make him start again.

The fourth was closer. In the fifth, Buatsi did more with the moments when Hutchinson stayed within reach, getting his hands going at close quarters and putting heavier shots into the body. Hutchinson was still finding room to slip away in the sixth, when Buatsi lost his gumshield again. Referee Victor Loughlin warned Buatsi over his use of the elbow. The exchanges grew untidy, with holding and complaints at close quarters, but Loughlin took no points from either man.

Hutchinson had a good seventh. He hooked to the body, landed a hard right to the head and kept both hands going as Buatsi struggled to answer. Buatsi began to land more often inside in the eighth. Hutchinson beckoned him out for the ninth, an invitation he soon qualified by moving away again. Both men went to the floor in that round, each on a slip. Neither man scored a knockdown.

Buatsi began to keep Hutchinson in the corners for longer spells. He found room for hooks in the tenth and made the eleventh his strongest round, getting through with a right and following with sustained work to the body. Hutchinson was tiring by then. In the twelfth he gave ground and kept moving out of range, while Buatsi pressed after him and got home downstairs. The late rounds made the wait for the cards a good deal less comfortable than it had looked at halfway. Carl Frampton, scoring on the DAZN broadcast, had it level.

Hutchinson was in tears after the decision. He recalled writing down his ambition at 13, while his father was working in Sweden. “I said I will become a world champion,” he said, before thanking his trainer for helping him through a difficult spell. He leaves Manchester with 21 wins, two defeats and 14 knockouts. Buatsi, who came in with 20 wins and one defeat, has now lost twice in 22 bouts. Thirteen of his wins have come inside the distance.

On the undercard, Manchester’s Jack Rafferty stayed unbeaten and took the vacant IBO welterweight title on points from Hovhannes Martirosyan, whom he dropped in the final round. Bradley Rea floored Ezra Taylor twice and stopped him 58 seconds into the second. Gully Powar won the vacant British featherweight title on a unanimous technical decision after a clash of heads left Zak Miller with swelling around his left eye. The doctor advised that the fight be stopped in the tenth.

Anthony Yarde was at ringside and stepped into the ring after Hutchinson called him out. “It’s 100% a fight I’d love to take,” said Yarde, who has challenged for a world title three times. The division’s other three major belts are due to be defended by Dmitry Bivol against Smith in Yekaterinburg on 12 December. Hutchinson already knows which man he would like for his first defence.

I had Willy Hutchinson winning that. The biggest difference from Wembley was where he made Joshua Buatsi throw from. The first time around, Buatsi could get his feet under him and dig to the body. In Manchester, he was too often reaching for the same shots while Hutchinson was already on his way out. You can walk a man all the way round the ring and still give him every inch he needs.

I liked what Hutchinson did with the lead hand. He could jab from orthodox, switch southpaw and bring the right hook round the guard. Buatsi had to reset his feet before he could answer. The seventh was a good example of Willie’s success. Hutchinson put a left into the body, got the right through upstairs and kept punching while Buatsi was still trying to get himself set. He could stand his ground when the opening was there.

Buatsi was poor at cutting the ring off. When he finally stepped across and kept Hutchinson in a corner, the body work started to bite. The eleventh showed what he could do once he got close enough to throw in bunches. I thought Hutchinson gave away too much ground late and made the decision closer than it needed to be. He still deserved it. Buatsi’s best work came when he made Hutchinson fight in a small space. He spent too much of the night letting him use the whole ring.