Joshua Buatsi Injured- Off Parker-Chisora II December Card

Bad news on Tuesday afternoon for English unbeaten Light Heavyweight Contender Joshua Buatsi, as he has suffered an injured hand in training and will miss his upcoming battle with veteran Maxim Vlasov scheduled for December 18th.

Buatsi, 15-0, 13 KOs, was to have been the co-feature of the Matchroom Boxing show that has Heavyweight contender Joseph Parker rematching Dereck Chisora as the main event. Matchroom confirmed the injury on social media,

ℹ️ Due to a hand injury sustained to @boxingbuatsi in training camp #BuatsiVlasov is off the #ParkerChisora2 card.

We wish JB well on his road to recovery 👊 pic.twitter.com/cDEMiMoErB

— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) November 16, 2021

Matchroom and promoter Eddie Hearn wasted no time in substituting Bantamweight star “Lightning” Lee McGregor of Scotland in a fight with Narek Abgaryan that will now be the new co-feature. McGregor is 11-0, 9 KOs and just signed a promotional deal with new outlet, Probellum Sports.

Back to Buatsi, as we wrote this Summer, he was last in action during the Matchroom “Fight Camp” series at their headquarters. Buatsi was impressive and scored an 11th TKO over Richard Bolotniks to keep his momentum going.

This came on the heels of him flattening little known Daniel Dos Santos with one punch in a fourth round KO in Manchester, England, in May. Buatsi has the WBA’s International 175 lb. title, currently and is ranked second by the WBA. That would put him in line for a possible shot down the road with their “world” champ, Dimitry Bivol of Russia.

Bivol, who has a promotional deal with Hearn and Matchroom, would be an easy fit, once Buatsi is healthy. Bivol was last in action as part of that same Matchroom Boxing show in Manchester in May that Buatsi was also on. He decisioned lightly regarded Craig Richards over 12 rounds in his first fight in a year and a half.

However, it’s believed that Hearn/Bivol’s camp are also angling for him to try to fight newly Undisputed Super Middleweight Champ, Canelo Alvarez, next year.

Alvarez fought and defeated Callum Smith, Avni Yildrim and Billy Joe Saunders with Hearn and Matchoom Boxing promoting and DAZN streaming broadcasting the fights.

However, Alvarez just fought on the Premier Boxing Champions main card against IBF 168 lb. champ Caleb Plant, knocking him out in 11 rounds. It’s believed that PBC and Showtime, who did well on the revenue for the Canelo PPV, will go hard after him to fight either David Benavidez or WBC Middleweight Champ, Jermall Charlo, next.