Joshua Buatsi

Taken from the Spring 19 issue of Wonderland.

“Miss? The last one’s for you…” Ghanaian-born, London-based boxer Joshua Buatsi is waving a box of chicken wings in my direction, proudly introducing me to a secret Nando’s sauce that’s not even on the menu, apparently available only to those in the know. Obviously, I’m instantly charmed. Though he feigns outrage at not having claimed one of the company’s infamous, unlimited free food “Black Cards” — one of 2019’s more elusive badges of cultural prestige — if Buatsi’s career continues to progress at the pace he’s currently setting, I doubt that’ll take too long.

Today’s a rare morning off for the 25 year old, who usually kick- starts a full day of training with a 7am cardio session. “When I’m out of bed or on my way to the gym, there’s these motivational speeches that I listen to,” he shows me, when I ask how the hell he does it day in, day out. “They’re boxing videos, but there’s a voiceover: Eric Thompson, Will Smith, Arnold Schwarzenegger; all these guys talking about how you have to work hard to get to where you want to get to. They’re talking about how some people like to sleep too much. Do you like to sleep too much?”

For someone whose insistent “Never!” is betrayed by a shrill, involuntary laugh of denial, it feels inconceivable for me — and realistically, for anyone else in the room — to possess the kind of compulsive energy that’s fuelled Buatsi’s dedication to his sport since he first picked up a pair of gloves.

It all started the summer before his GCSEs, when a friend pulled up to his Croydon estate with a car boot full of boxing gear. Kids started sparring each other, messing around, thrilled for five minutes by the novelty of a brand new distraction, but Buatsi was enamoured. For the rest of the six- week period the then 15 year-old started his days at 4:30am, when he’d be picked up by a mate post- night shift to run, gym, and box for hours on end.

“I needed something that would be consuming, because at that age you’ve got a lot of time at hand literally just hanging about in the estate, up to nothing, wasting time,” he explains. “If I’d had something that wasn’t captivating, I wouldn’t have stuck to it. I wouldn’t have felt challenged or interested. Boxing had all of these things to it.”

Here’s where people usually skip to 2016, Rio de Janeiro, where Buatsi won a Bronze medal representing Team GB in the light heavyweight division at the Olympics. “You wait for them to announce your name, and I remember being so nervous I started screaming,” he recounts, visibly energised by the memory. “I was like: Is this actually happening? I’m about to box in the Olympic Games. The world is watching.”

But Buatsi knows the glory of that moment was transitory, and he’d much rather talk about the years of tediously repetitive, physically and mentally demand- ing work it took to get there. “When people just say, ‘We’ve watched you at the Olympics!’ I’m like, mate, it took eight years of grind!” He laughs, “They skip the grind. I did a talk yesterday, and I was saying to the guys that it’s eight years of working hard and not knowing where it’s going to take you. For eight years, I didn’t know if I was going to get to the Olympic team.”

He speaks of “the grind” in a sincere but matter-of-fact way, like it is and always has been the only option for him. Buatsi exhibits that rare, unwavering conscientious streak held by high achievers who’ve flourished, not because of pure luck or circumstance, but because of a relentless commit- ment to hard graft. Sometimes I do wonder if I’m talented,” he contemplates, half to me, half to himself. “It takes such a lot of grit to get through these sessions and to stay on it. But I must have some talent to be doing it…”

He credits his work ethic to the values instilled within him by his family, who moved to London from Ghana when he was nine years-old. Education was paramount in their household, perceived as integral to accessing the wider scope of opportunities available in the UK. So when Buatsi was offered a promotional contract from American boxing- legend Floyd Mayweather at the Games in 2016 (“He said he’d just come [to Rio] to see me, but I was like, ‘You’re chatting rubbish, let’s get real!’”), he turned it down in favour of completing his Management Studies and Sports Science degree at Twickenham’s St Mary’s University. “My boys said: ‘You’ve got a medal, sack off Uni.’ But I said to myself I had to finish it,” he shrugs. “It’s some- thing that I’m proud of.”

Having since signed with the same management as unified world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and partnered as a Nike Athlete with the sport powerhouse, Buatsi’s building a legacy beyond the ring – now working alongside personal heroes for the brands he used to save and queue for at sports outlets. Still, he’s adamant it’s the training that sustains it all. “These are day-to-day things that you never thought would happen, so I live in the moment now and I take it all in. Today I’m on a photo shoot, but I’m thinking about boxing, because that’s what got me here,” he reasons. “The equation, or the method, or the secret, is easy: it’s just to keep winning, and that comes from working hard. If I don’t win or I don’t perform, these things don’t happen.”

If the strategy’s persistence, it’s paid off – Buatsi’s never been knocked out by anyone other than his dentist. I get the sense he’s baited by the clear-cut win or lose nature of the sport – as he says, in the ring, there’s no second place: “In a race you can come second, third, fourth, fifth, but in boxing? There’s you, and him.”
He tells me he’s currently train- ing to claim the British title in his division, and after that, the ultimate aim is sustaining a long-term title as a World Champion. Then, and only then, Buatsi would consider doing the kind of motivational coaching he listens to every morning, in addition to the varied philanthropic work he’s already planned. “After I’ve achieved what I want to achieve,” he says resolutely. “Because it’s pointless talking when you’ve got nothing to show for it. In the future, when I’ve won that stuff, yeah. It’d be great to have that voiceover.”