Joking and laughing with friends in the changing room, then the call comes: ‘Joshua, you’re on in thirty minutes.’ The relaxed atmosphere goes quiet, the thudding and the pounding of the pads is the overwhelming noise coming out of Joshua Buatsi’s pre-fight environment. The switch has been flicked. No emotion, just blank. “I start thinking. I’ve got someone warming up to hit me in the face,” said the 25-year-old describing what it is like to be in amongst it all moments before he goes to work. Buatsi is a light heavyweight prospect filled with poise, accuracy and power. Three attributes that he has displayed in his seven professional fights to date and have him rightly regarded as one of the world’s hottest boxing talents. His eighth contest comes on October 13 in Newcastle against, he hoped when GiveMeSport spoke to him, a British opponent. Buatsi the man is one of family, sticking to who you have always known and reminding himself to be grateful for what he has. Having spent the first nine years of his life there, Buatsi would leave Ghana in August 2002 with his family to forge a life in England. English was already in his vocabulary, as was the ability to adapt. “No matter where I’m put I know how to adapt to that way of life.” The memories of Ghana for Buatsi are ones of sunny days, freedom, hanging about with his cousins, going to school but seeing life from a different angle. “It’s not everyone who has everything that they want or that they need. It’s only when you go to a different part of the world that you crave more things and you claim that you may not be happy or content if you don’t have certain things but living and growing up there showed me that you have to deal with what you have.” You could speak to Joshua Buatsi about his perspective on life as much as you could about boxing. His answers and his own philosophies are of a man who will not be seduced by the side of boxing that can swallow your career and bank balance before you’ve even had time to sit down and relax. His circle is close, it’s tight-knit and even contains a friend who once bashed him around in Croydon when they were kids. What followed was six weeks of training over the summer holidays and the rest is history. “He’s still my best friend. He has to be. He introduced me to the sport.”