Faith, fire and a ticking clock for Buatsi
I know Joshua Buatsi very well but, at the same time, I don't know him at all.
Buatsi, who fights fellow Briton Zach Parker at light-heavyweight in Manchester on Saturday night, is an incredibly private man.
In fact, he might be one of the most private boxers I've ever known.
He has great Christian faith. He stands in a pulpit and preaches. He does so much work in different parts of the world, specifically Ghana, which is the country of his heritage.
None of this is covered, and he doesn't want any of it covered.
So there is no doubt that Buatsi is a great man.
But as a boxer, is he where I expected him to be, having watched him in the flesh winning Olympic bronze for Great Britain at Rio 2016?
No, he's not. I thought he might be a little bit further advanced. That doesn't mean he won't get where I expect him to get, though.
Since turning pro in 2017, Buatsi has had hard, tough fights but has never taken a beating.
He's 32, but he's relatively fresh. He's been learning, certainly in the last two or three years. He's not been over-fighting. He's not weary and he's not tired.
With the way things can open up – a vacant title or two – I do think he will become a world champion.
Promoter hopping and missed moments
Buatsi went to the Worlds and Europeans in the amateurs when he was massively inexperienced and held his own with some of the best in the world.
Team GB coach and former world champion Richie Woodhall was big on him both before we went to the Olympics and when we were there.
We had the likes of Joe Joyce, Josh Kelly, Nicola Adams and Savannah Marshall. But Richie told me Buatsi was the one going under the radar, the fighter to look out for.
Buatsi was a decent to massive underdog in three wins in Rio, and he didn't just beat good guys, he beat them in style.
But after the Olympics, he didn't turn professional for over a year, which I have a slight problem with.
He had momentum. He signed with Anthony Joshua's management company and people were talking about him. You can't go into hibernation for that long.
When Buatsi won the British title in 2019, I thought it would be one or two years before he really got going, and then Covid came.
Now, we can't keep using Covid as an excuse, but it did slow his career down.
Buatsi has also been guilty of promoter-hopping and jumping ship a little bit early at times, which never helps a career.
He started with Matchroom, went to Boxxer, and is now with Queensberry – where I know Frank Warren is a big fan of Buatsi, and always has been.
Smith defeat did no harm to Buatsi's reputation
Despite all of what I've just said, Buatsi has had some great wins in 20 pro fights and he's been tested.
From 2022 through to the present day, he's beaten Craig Richards, Dan Azeez and Willie Hutchinson, and then lost to Callum Smith.
All four of those opponents make a boxer a better fighter, even in defeat. The Azeez bout was a fight of the year. The Hutchinson fight had its moments. The Richards fight was full of quality.
And then against Smith in Saudi Arabia – another fight of the year contender – Buatsi firmly established his positioning in the division.
I thought Smith was the deserved winner but there was only two or three rounds in it. The judge that gave it to Smith by nine rounds had it too wide.
The defeat did not hurt Buatsi's reputation one single bit. It hurt his pride maybe, it took away his unbeaten record, but it showed that unless you're one of the very best fighters in the world, Buatsi is going to give you a torrid time.
Still time for Buatsi to become world champion
Warren's belief in his fighter is shown by the fact he's put him in with Parker.
Both are probably top-10 light-heavyweights in the world. It's a terrific fight and it would be another solid win for Buatsi.
Perhaps Queensberry can also do a fly-on-the-wall documentary so we can all get to know him a bit better too.
He won't like this, but being so private outside the ring hasn't helped Buatsi's exposure.
Although rolling out of nightclubs at 3am with the latest Love Island star is not in his character, there is more to Buatsi than meets the eye.
Sometimes you get that little bit of venom and his adrenaline pumping after the fight. Maybe we need to see that fire he has a bit more.
Time is ticking to a degree, but you only have to look at the age of boxing's elite light-heavyweights – Dmitri Bivol, 34, and Artur Beterbiev, 39 – to know Buatsi still has time to get to where I predicted he would a decade ago.
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