Willy Hutchinson Avenges Defeat to Joshua Buatsi and Lifts the WBC Light Heavyweight Title

Those who said that Buatsi's war with Callum Smith had taken a lot out of him were proven right. Once considered one of the UK's brightest prospects, the former Olympic bronze medallist plodded lifelessly around the ring with the air of a man who would rather be somewhere else.

By contrast, Willy Hutchinson looked like he was having the time of his life. Constantly switching stances, he bounced around on his toes, circling left and right, while pinging sharp little punches to Buatsi's head and midsection.

Buatsi was too slow, and struggled to find any rhythm in his own work to make an impression.

That being said, Hutchinson started to slow down in the later rounds, and Buatsi, who still looked poor, was able to find the target, particularly to the body. In the end, he made it a competitive fight, but there was no doubt as to the winner.

Future opponents of Hutchinson would have been encouraged to see the way he dramatically slowed down, even in a fight whose pace he was controlling. The Scotsman looked completely shattered by the 11th round and needed every precious second of the minute's rest. He saw out the fight by getting back on his toes and avoiding engagement with the advancing Buatsi, while flicking out the odd, ineffectual punch.

Hutchinson has achieved his childhood ambition of becoming a world champion, and wept tears of joy while being held aloft by his team. He was good enough to win a vacant title against a faded contender, but I suspect he will need a lot of luck if he's to hold onto it.

His likely first challenger is London's Anthony Yarde, who is best known for being stopped in three world title bids, against Sergei Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev and David Benavidez. Now 35, Yarde is getting on a bit.

But I would not consider him a soft choice. The three above who stopped him are among the greatest light heavies of recent years, and probably made him look worse than he really is. He has considerably more power than Buatsi but he may struggle just as much against a mobile target like Hutchinson. But because of Willy's tendency to fade down the stretch, I would call it a 50-50 fight.

If he gets past Yarde, he'll have a box of tricks waiting for him in the shape of Ben Whittaker. Ben just came off a bizarre performance in which he boxed the ears off Connor Wallace only to get caught and floored in the final rounds.

Some say this was a good experience for Whittaker because he got rounds in the bank and showed he could gut it out when hurt and exhausted. I disagree. To me, it showed that he only shines when potshotting from a distance. If he starts getting hit, he loses all composure and resorts to bundling his opponent to the floor to buy time. 

I think Hutchinson vs Whittaker would be a horrible clash of styles, as both men like to pick and peck away without engaging. It would be a hard one to call, but I suspect the paying fans would feel like the real losers at the end of it.