The vacant WBC light heavyweight belt will be on the line when the British rivals renew hostilities at Manchester’s AO Arena on Saturday. DAZN will broadcast the action. 

Buatsi (20-1, 13 KOs) is ranked at No.3 in The Ring rankings. Hutchinson (20-2, 14 KOs) sits at No.7. 

In September 2024, Buatsi dropped Hutchinson twice and boxed his way to a split-decision victory on the undercard of Daniel Dubois’ IBF heavyweight title defense against Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London. The win earned him the WBO interim title. 

Before that first fight, Hutchinson goaded the composed Buatsi into several uncharacteristic flare-ups.

The stakes are much higher this time around, and both Buatsi and Hutchinson have poured their energy into preparing for what will happen inside the ring on Saturday rather than scoring points outside it. 

It is 10 years since Buatsi won a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil. He was immediately touted as a future world champion, and although it has taken longer than many expected, the Ghanaian-born 33-year-old now stands on the verge of fulfilling that potential. 

“It's simply the right time. We've all got different opinions and times and when we would have wanted something to happen, but it's happening this Saturday,” Buatsi, 33, said at Thursday’s final press conference.

“I keep saying, this isn't something that I dreamed of as a little boy. My life was very different to all of this. Fighting in arenas, winning titles, going to the Olympic Games. As a little boy, this wasn't a dream of mine. When I started the sport, got off to winning ways and carried on, then the dream came.

“So if you ask me, as a little boy, did I want to do any of this? Hell no, I didn't have the vision for it, but now I've had it, we’ve tuned in, and we've zoned in on it, and we're almost there.”

Hutchinson has also walked a decade-long, circuitous path to Saturday’s title shot, but he has long dreamt of winning a world title for much longer. 

The 28-year-old Scotsman won a host of amateur titles himself and, in 2016, he won gold at the World Youth Amateur Championships. 

That victory was part of a pledge he made to himself as a teenager. If he can even the score with Buatsi and become a world champion, he will make good on the final leg of that promise.

“I was 13 years old, working in Sweden with my dad. I wrote in a book that I'd become Scottish, British, European and world amateur champion. On the opposite side - I still have the book till today - I wrote that I’d become the WBC champion of the world,” he said. 

“I won the amateur world championships 10 years ago, and it's near enough the exact date that I'm fighting this man for the professional WBC championship of the world. I think it's absolutely fantastic.”

Hutchinson is confident and certain that, by hook or by crook, he will have his hand raised. 

“It's all about being as happy as I can physically be,” he said.

“All I'm really interested in is enjoying this. There's no such thing as a game plan because anything can change in a moment, a second, of a fight, so I'm going to enjoy it, and I'm going to get the job done, and I'm going to be the next WBC champion of the world.”

Buatsi is ferociously dedicated to his craft and not the type to leave anything to chance. He has consigned the first fight to history and is primed for the best version of Hutchinson. 

“In camp, we haven’t prepared as if, 'I beat this guy last time, so just go in there and it’s going to be a walk in the park. No. We’ve prepared for a very good opponent and for the best form of him to show up. We’re ready.”