On November 2nd at the Manchester Arena in England, British light heavyweight Joshua Buatsi will face Australia's Blake Caparello. The main event that night has world lightweight champion Katie Taylor moving up in weight [to avoid Delfine Persoon and] challenge WBO junior welterweight champion Christina Linardatou. According to promoter Eddie Hearn, Buatsi-Caparello will be a WBA eliminator. Buatsi is listed as 12-0 as a pro, but is 13-2 if you count the World Series of Boxing. Caparello is 30-3 with losses to Isaac Chilemba, Andre Dirrell and Sergey Kovalev. Caparello's won four straight against good Australian competition. [Dmitry Bivol is the current WBA light heavyweight champion but former world champion Jean Pascal holds the WBA interim title, so the path for the Buatsi-Caparello winner remains unclear.]

 

Hearn said an eliminator "is what we have been talking about between the level [Buatsi] has been boxing at the moment and the Dmitry Bivol’s of this world.. This is right in the middle to show us exactly where he is. Blake Caparello is extremely tough and is on a great run of wins, a clever southpaw who has only ever lost to the elite of the division. We have seen him going the distance many times with big punchers and this is a great test for Joshua Buatsi on November 2nd.

 

Buatsi had this to say at a press conference: “Every fight is important to me, I don’t take them lightly. I concentrate and I think about things over and over for hours so I will be doing the same for this fight, so come November 2 I will be in there ready to fight and to win. Like Cash says, you have win at all costs and do anything to win so that’s what I will be aiming to do. I think that he is going to try and hang in there and he will believe in his own punching power. He has been on a long winning run but there’s two men in that ring. When I am in there I am there to win, outside of the ring I am a cool, calm guy but in there you have to be a savage and I am very good at being that. When I get in there I will do what I need to do to win. I just hope the Manchester fans embrace and welcome me, I’m looking forward to it.”