Hutchinson Beats Buatsi at Last — and Leaves Manchester a World Champion

Willy Hutchinson is a world champion. The 28-year-old from Carstairs, Scotland beat Joshua Buatsi by unanimous decision over 12 rounds at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday night to win the vacant WBC light-heavyweight title — David Irving scored it 117-112, Mark Lyson and Phil Austin both had it 115-113, and all three cards belonged to the man who lost their first fight.

That first fight is why this one mattered. In September 2024, at Wembley, Buatsi dropped Hutchinson twice with body shots — in the sixth and the ninth — and beat him on a split decision. Hutchinson has lived with that result for two years. The rematch was first billed for the interim title; when David Benavidez gave up the WBC belt to continue at cruiserweight, it was upgraded to the full championship, and the chance it created went to the fighter who had been waiting for a second meeting ever since Wembley.

There were no knockdowns this time, because Hutchinson never let the fight become the one Buatsi wanted. He built his lead early with the jab, the counters, the speed and the movement — showboating by the third round, in control by halfway, and accurate with a combination in the seventh that underlined the gap. Buatsi, the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, was in his first fight in a year and his first world title shot, and he started too slowly: the body-shot plan that undid Hutchinson in 2024 never found the same answers against a man who had spent two years preparing for exactly it.

Buatsi did come. His eighth round was his better round, head and body, urgency up; after the ninth, Hutchinson's corner told their man, "Three rounds and you're a world champion." The 11th was Buatsi's all-out rally — a committed body assault, Hutchinson trapped in corners and finally beginning to wilt — and it was the fight's loudest round. It was also too late. Hutchinson boxed the 12th on the back foot, content with a lead two years in the making, and saw out the decision.

The records move to 21-2 (14 KOs) for Hutchinson and 20-2 (13 KOs) for Buatsi. Hutchinson is the eighth British light-heavyweight champion, the first since Nathan Cleverly in 2017, and — on ESPN's account — Scotland's first men's world boxing champion since Josh Taylor's reign at junior welterweight ended three years ago. It is the first world title of his career, and afterwards he told the arena how long he had been carrying it around in his head. "I was 13 years old when I said I would be WBC champion, I wrote it in a book, and now I am world champion," he said in the ring. "I should have beaten him two years ago, but we got the job done." He called for Anthony Yarde next — Yarde was at ringside and congratulated him in the ring — as a possible first defence.

Step back and the shape of the division's winter is already visible in this one result. The WBC belt was only available because David Benavidez walked away from it toward cruiserweight, and a vacant title usually goes to the division's most patient contender — instead it went to the man who had to win a grudge match to claim it. Buatsi, an Olympic medallist with the deeper amateur pedigree, leaves Manchester still waiting for the title shot to come round again at 33. The queue behind the new champion starts with Anthony Yarde — beaten fighters from the first Wembley meeting do not usually get to pick their first defence, but Hutchinson earned exactly that right on Saturday night.

Revenge fights usually promise more than they settle. This one settled everything it promised: the better man on the night was the man who lost the first time, the belt changed hands on three honest cards, and a prediction written down by a 13-year-old in Carstairs came true in Manchester.