Willy Hutchinson believes that he is ready to return to the big time.
On Saturday night, the 27-year-old Scotsman punctuated a well rounded performance with a nasty, accurate finish to
stop Mark Jeffers in the seventh round.
378 difficult days have passed since Hutchinson lost to
Joshua Buatsi on the Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua undercard at London's Wembley Stadium in September 2024 and during his post-fight interview with Queensberry, Ring Magazine's No. 10-ranked light heavyweight made it plain where he wants to go next.
“Hopefully in Riyadh. I want to be in Riyadh, on these big shows [boxing for] world titles," Hutchinson said.
Beating Jeffers won't immediately create a clamour for Hutchinson (19-2, 14 KOs) to be plunged into a major fight with a marque name at 175-pounds but the business-like way he went about it was encouraging.
Hutchinson is a talented, maverick character who has openly admitted struggling to find direction after the 12-round points loss to Buatsi. He spent a brief period training with Shane McGuigan earlier this year before
soon finding his way back to longtime trainer and friend Mirko Wolf; a man he credits with saving his life as well as his boxing career.
Jeffers has spent the vast majority of his career fighting at super middleweight but Hutchinson did what he was supposed to, handling him with the least amount of fuss possible.
The opposition will undoubtedly get progressively tougher from here on in but Hutchinson looked as good as ever - both mentally and physically - insisting he is ready for the very best straight away.
"Listen, it's going to be very difficult to find someone more equal than me because I believe I’m a superstar," he said.
"All I'm interested in is these world titles. [WBC titleholder]
David Benavidez, [unified WBO, WBA and IBF champion]
Dmitry Bivol or whoever else has got them world titles is who I'm interested in."
“I want Buatsi to win next and want him next. If it's not him, fair enough. Whoever.”
Whether or not Buatsi (19-1, 13 KOs) will want to go over old ground is a conversation for another day and one the intense 32-year old is unlikely to broach until
after his November 1 main event matchup with Zach Parker (26-1, 18 KOs) at Manchester's Co-Op Live Arena.
After being out for so long, Hutchinson will want to see action again quickly and is open to facing anybody.
He has been less than complimentary about British rival
Ben Whittaker (9-0-1, 6 KOs) and would happily squeeze in a fight with the Olympic silver medallist before revisiting world level.
"Let's do it next. Why not?" he said. "But him, I'm not interested in him. [It’s] Buatsi or world titles. If he [Whittaker] comes along, perfect. He can be a fight before Buatsi or before Bivol.
"If Buatsi never happens again - I would love it - but if it doesn't happen, it's fine. Ben Whittaker can be next."