Latvian star Ricards Bolotniks has had a torrid time with fight dates this year but on August 14 he gets to showcase his skills on the biggest stage when he meets Joshua Buatsi at Fight Camp.

“Already this year I’ve had two fights cancelled and then boom, Joshua Buatsi! It’s great, it’s brilliant. I’m happy of course, it’s a big, massive fight. We fight for the belt, the WBA [International], so it’s a massive fight and I’m happy,”

‘The Lion’ has been deep in camp for most of 2021 and he predicted he would cross paths with the man from Croydon.

“We’ve been looking at him for half a year. We’ve been training for five, six months only for him, we knew some time we would meet each other so I have been ready for him for six months," Bolotniks told proboxing-fans.com.

Bolotniks has recently found success in the MTK Golden Contract where he has become a familiar name amongst the British boxing fans and he is looking forward to the test of Joshua Buatsi.

“I think it will be one of my hardest fights," Bolotniks said.

“I want all 12 rounds and I want to really fight, I want a street fight in that ring on that night. I don’t want just one, two, three, four, five rounds, no, I want to feel everything from him and myself. When I finish the fight I come to the dressing room and I will sit and say, ‘yeah, we did that,’ I want that [kind of] fight.”

Ricards has watched Buatsi from afar all his career and admits he has grown as a fighter whilst collecting titles throughout his early professional fighting life but the savvy Latvian knows you’re only as good as your last fight so will only be focusing on Buatsi from his recent bouts.

“I think Buatsi is different now to what he was before like everyone else. We change when we fight so we are only looking at his last two, three fights.”

The 31-year-old has all the motivation he needs heading into this bout. Buatsi uses the moniker of Just Business and that is exactly what it is for Bolotniks too.

“My wife and my family. I am fighting for my wife, my family, my mother, my father, my country - and money, of course! I’m not that kind of guy to say we don’t need money only belts, listen I need to buy food, pay for the house, clothes so of course I am fighting for money.”