Buatsi vs Richards Full Betting Breakdown

This weekend the hotly anticipated Domestic clash between Joshua Buatsi and Craig ‘The Spider’ Richards takes place in the Light heavyweight division live on DAZN. Buatsi opens as the heavy favourite in this matchup, with many expecting him to get past Richards and move on to an inevitable shot at the Light heavyweight world title. Here we will give you a full breakdown of the best Buatsi vs Richards betting tips and insights.
Recent Form
Buatsi is coming off an 11th round TKO win over Ricards Bolotniks at fight camp August in what was a career best win. A competitive fight early on, Buatsi wore down the game Bolotniks with tremendous body work and pinpoint accurate shots. Bolotniks, the Golden Contract tournament winner, was on a definite hot streak coming into this one and had even campaigned at Cruiserweight beforehand. Before this, Buatsi had been treading water slightly with routine wins over mediocre opponents such as Daniel Dos Santos, Marco Antonio Periban and Liam Conroy. He did struggle against Marko Calic, again showing that he can be hit, but also showed he is not afraid to mix it up as seen in the Bolotniks fight.
On the other hand, ‘The Spider’ is coming off a stoppage win in a stay busy fight against the Polish Marek Matyja. Richards stepped up on short notice against Frank Buglioni for the British Light heavyweight title back in 2017, where he was well beaten on points. Since then, he went on a good run on the domestic scene stopping the likes of Jake Ball and Shakan Pitters. The marquee name on the Lewisham mans record is Dimitry Bivol, who just a few weeks ago defeated pound for pound King Canelo Alvarez. Richards gave Bivol some problems in the world title clash last year, showing shades of World class ability, however just wasn’t active enough to beat Bivol who won comfortably on points in the end.

The Matchup
Bivols win against Canelo Alvarez last weekend definitely adds some extra juice and excitement going into this contest. Richards was competitive in that fight, and has shown that he can hang in there at world level. Buatsi has long been touted as a blue chipper, but has never actually performed on that level like Richards. Buatsi tends to keep his head on the centre line and can be susceptible to the straight right, as seen in the Bolotniks fight where he was getting caught early. This is where ‘The Spider’ can give him trouble, he has long arms and and great 1-2 fundamentals, and I can see him catching the sometimes stationary head of Buatsi. Richards definitely has pop, however he seems to be good in all areas without being outstanding in any. Buatsi didn’t seem to have visible trouble with Bolotniks power, a former cruiserweight, and therefore do not think that he will have trouble Richards who has campaigned at Super Middleweight.
With this in mind, Richards isnt likely to get rid of Buatsi early, and Buatsi has shown throughout hsi career that he has a mean streak and big power. Much like his last performance, I can see Buatsi having trouble from Richards early before growing into the fight. I fancy him to take over in the second half of the fight by chopping up ‘The Spiders’ body, who in my opinion just isn’t active enough over the course of 12 rounds. I think Buatsi has levels to go up beyond Richards, and I like his violent approach and attitude to finishing fights and can see him getting the job done late.
The Pick
Back Buatsi by KO/TKO/DQ in rounds 7-12
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