Joshua Buatsi received significant resistance from Marko Calic but got the job done Sunday in Milton Keynes, England.
Butasi, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, stopped the previously unbeaten Calic in the seventh round of a scheduled 12-round light heavyweight bout to retain his perfect record.
Buatsi (13-0, 11 KOs) wore down Calic (11-1, 6 KOs) with a variety of hard shots – including consistent body work – but the Londoner took more punishment himself than one might expect from a fighter with his pedigree.
Calic, a beaten man, went down under a barrage of punches in the final round. The referee allowed him to continue but the Croatian’s corner stopped the fight at that point. The official time of the stoppage was 2:09 of Round 7.
Afterward, Calic indicated that he believes he suffered a broken jaw in the fight.
“Props to Calic,”Buatsi said. “He told me his jaw was broken. He pushed me all the way and credit to him, I had to dig deep. I got a thumb in the third round and felt the swelling straight away.
“It’s never happened before, but we bite down and we fight. It’s the fight game, when you are in there, you do what you have to do to win.”
Buatsi was fighting for the first time since he stopped Ryan Ford in seven rounds in August of last year. He said he wants to get back into the ring before the end of this year.
“Four hundred days out of the ring,” he said. “The first one back is quite different, but I enjoyed it. … As long as I am moving forward. As long as I am moving forward, no matter how slow, no matter how quick, I am moving forward. It’s good to be back.”