Great Britain’s Joshua Buatsi says he is not settling for any place on the podium and gold is the colour he is targeting in the light-heavyweight section at the 2016 Olympics.
Buatsi has been in sensational form at the South American showpiece so far and is looking ominously good heading into the semi-final bout on Tuesday night.
The 23-year-old defeated Kennedy Katende by TKO in his first fight before the Brit produced arguably his best performance in the next contest against Elshod Rasulov.
The Ghana-born ace knocked down his Uzbekistan opponent three times to win by knockout and he took the momentum from that display into the quarter-final clash with Algeria’s Abdelhafid Benchabla.
Britain’s rising star won the fight on all three judges’ scorecards and his reward is a last-four encounter against Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Niyazymbetov.
Buatsi is guaranteed at least a bronze medal for Team GB but he is setting the bar higher in Rio and wants to clinch the top prize on offer.
“I want to dominate in every way I can, and I want more than bronze,” he said.
“I will give it everything that I’ve got to make sure I get a gold.”
Buatsi also revealed he has talked with retired former five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr at the Games and the British medal hope says his comments are reward for his hard work.
“He said to me he had heard about me before I got here and that I was a great fighter, a future world champion,”
Buatsi added. “It was good to hear that from someone like Mayweather, who I think is the greatest boxer of our generation.”
Leave a comment
Link Dafabet