Anthony Yarde is already looking towards the future after seeing his world title hopes dashed by David Benavidez.
Yarde was dropped and then stopped in the seventh round by WBC light heavyweight champion, Benavidez on Saturday in Riyadh.
The 34-year-old fell short in his third attempt at winning a world title, having previously lost to Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev respectively.
Yarde has now revealed he is willing to face long-time countryman, Joshua Buatsi, who was ringside at the ANB Arena.
“I’ve always said I want to fight Buatsi,” he told Boxing King Media.
“It’s a big fight. Why not?
“It’s just that people were asking me at a time when I’m fighting Benavidez.
“I’m fighting a guy on the top 10 pound-for-pound list and you’re talking to me about fighting Buatsi.
“My only focus at that moment in time was Benavidez.
“Not Buatsi, not Callum Smith, not all the guys who turned down fighting Benavidez.”
View this post on Instagram
Buatsi suffered his first professional defeat to the aforementioned Smith in February, but bounced back with a contentious majority decision win over Zach Parker earlier this month.
Both men are now under Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, but Yarde admits he’s been frustrated by what he feels has been Buatsi’s unwillingness to face him.
“He messed me about,” he added.
“I’ve spoken to him face-to-face and I was like, ‘I don’t like how you done things. You said we were going to fight, then you chose to fight Willy Hutchinson.’
“He said, ‘I have to take this Hutchinson fight, because it just makes sense.’
“I said, ‘I understand, me and you fight next.’
“I had a little warm-up fight in between.
“I didn’t even look good in that fight and then he goes and fights Smith.
“So I was like, ‘what’s this? Why you got me waiting around? This is mad, I’ve got a career as well.’
“He didn’t really have an answer for it.”
The post Anthony Yarde open to facing British rival after David Benavidez loss appeared first on ProBoxing-Fans.com.