Looking forward to this if it happens Hutchinson has always looked a real talent. Good to see he's got it together now after the Clarke set back.
Hutchinson looked good for most of the Richards bout but faded substantially the last few rounds, and that was hardly fought at a pace I'd call exceptional or grueling .
Hutchinson and Buatsi have actually sparred before. Shane McGuigan said Hutchinson ''stood him on his head'' and Domingle who used to train Hutchinson said he witnessed two spars between them and they were very competitive. I'm not saying that will translate into a real fight or that he'll beat Buatsi but Hutchinson is and always has been a talent, is a former junior world amateur gold medalist, fought and beat some very good fighters in the amateurs including beating David Morrell, and he pretty much outclassed Craig Richards for the first half of the fight and won wide enough. And he can punch and Buatsi is pretty easy to hit and whilst very good is not as good as I previously thought he was so it could be a lot more competitive than many would assume it would be. If he can take Buatsi's power or avoid getting caught too much I think he stands a good chance of winning.
I was pleasantly surprised with Hutchinson, Serge. Obviously, he needs a bit more polish and seasoning but he appears to possess all the natural ingredients---speed, power, punch variety, solid athleticism---to be a very good offensive fighter. His ceiling will likely come down to whether he can tighten up defensively and if his chin is equal to the task at the highest levels.
Yes he's definitely a talent and that was an impressive performance against Richards in a fight few expected him to win. I'm still not sold on his punch resistance but to be fair that loss was his only fight at 168 and there were apparently genuine outside the ring issues affecting him in that fight. I'm not making excuses for him and, as said, I still question his chin, but perhaps people, including myself, have been harsh to write him off after that KO loss. That being said, even though I picked Richards to win, I had a funny feeling the week of the fight that he was going to stop Richards who has a very good chin and has never even been dropped. Obviously that didn't happen but I was kind of right lol If he does have chin issues it's not like we aren't going to find out
To what extent is Buatsi reviewing the bookies odds. I remember when he was facing a Russian fighter who at the time was a favourite to beat him, and he pulled out with an injury. Then fought an absolute roll over next and never re-arranged the fight. If he ends up not the favourite here does he get injured again? I think the clever play here is to wait until less than 24 hours before the fight and lay on against him.
There is a Highland breeze making its way through the LHW division and its name is Willy Hutchinson. Willy would beat Bivol and Beterbiev on the same night, they will all fall at the hands of Willy the Braveheart.
