Buatsi–Hutchinson II: A WBC Title at Stake
Two years after they first traded leather under the lights at Wembley, Joshua Buatsi and Willy Hutchinson are back on a collision course. This time, the stakes are heavier, the setting grander, and the margin for error almost non-existent.
On Saturday 7 November, at the AO Arena in Manchester, the pair meet again with a WBC light heavyweight belt on the line. The sanctioning body lists it as vacant; some outlets call it an interim strap. Call it what you like. For both men, it is the doorway to the elite at 175 pounds.
The first chapter
Their rivalry properly ignited in September 2024.
That night at Wembley, Buatsi edged a split decision to claim the WBO interim title. It was not the kind of win that settles an argument. It was the kind that demands a sequel.
Buatsi looked on the brink of taking full control in the sixth, when he badly hurt Hutchinson and seemed a punch or two away from forcing the referee’s hand. He dropped the Scot in the ninth as well, a heavy moment that might have broken a lesser fighter.
Hutchinson refused to fold. He clawed his way back into exchanges, stayed sharp enough to keep Buatsi honest, and made the judges work for their scorecards. When the decision came, it went Buatsi’s way – but with just enough doubt to keep both corners thinking about unfinished business.
Two years later, that feeling hasn’t faded. It has festered.
The numbers behind the needle
They come into Manchester with almost mirror-image ledgers.
Buatsi stands at 20 wins, 1 loss, 13 knockouts. A career built on composure, timing and a knack for breaking opponents down rather than blowing them away.
Hutchinson arrives with 20 wins, 2 losses, 14 knockouts. A touch more volatility in his record, a touch more chaos in his style, and the power to flip a fight in a heartbeat.
Both sit inside the light heavyweight top ten. Both know that a win does more than add a belt to the wardrobe. It catapults the victor into the same sentence as the division’s biggest names, including David Benavidez.
The bookmakers see it almost as a coin toss. That tells its own story. The first fight was close enough, and both men have grown enough since, that no one is ready to call this with conviction.
What’s really at stake
This is not just about a WBC strap, interim or otherwise. It is about direction.
The winner steps into the queue for marquee nights, for seven-figure purses, for the kind of fights that define a career rather than decorate it. The loser drifts back into the pack at 175, where the road to redemption is long and unforgiving.
Buatsi knows a second win over Hutchinson, this time attached to a WBC title, would move him straight into the conversation for a shot at the division’s true apex. Hutchinson understands that overturning the result of Wembley, with a belt at stake, would flip the narrative on its head and mark him out as a serious threat to anyone at light heavyweight.
The pressure will not just come from across the ring. It will come from what lies beyond it.
Undercard spotlight: Rafferty’s title chance
Earlier in the evening, another belt will find a new home.
Jack Rafferty faces Hovhannes Martirosyan for the vacant IBO welterweight title, a chance for both men to grab their first major honour and plant a flag in one of boxing’s deepest divisions.
For Rafferty, it is a chance to turn local buzz into global relevance. For Martirosyan, it is an opportunity to gatecrash a crowded scene with a statement win on a big British card.
By the time Buatsi and Hutchinson make their ring walks, someone at 147 pounds will already have changed their life.
A rivalry that can’t end quietly
The rematch streams on DAZN in the UK, a familiar stage for two fighters who have spent years circling the top of the division, waiting for a clear path to open.
That path now runs straight through Manchester.
Buatsi wants to prove Wembley was no debate, just the first chapter of his rise. Hutchinson wants to prove it was an argument he simply didn’t have time to finish.
One of them walks out with a WBC light heavyweight belt and a route to the very top. The other walks out with the knowledge that this rivalry, and perhaps this moment, slipped away.
