MANCHESTER, England - On November 1, Willy Hutchinson made his way to Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena to watch his old foe, Joshua Buatsi, battle to a controversial 10-round decision win over Zach Parker. The Ring’s No. 10-ranked light heavyweight had designs on taking on the winner at some point in early 2026.

The Scotsman was prowling around ringside when drawn into an impromptu interview with the undefeated Ezra Taylor, where things quickly escalated. Taylor (13-0, 9 KOs) called Hutchinson (19-2, 14 KOs) out and the two had to be dragged apart.

Hutchinson left Manchester with a new opponent.

On January 24, the two will return to the Co-op Live Arena and this time, settle their differences between the ropes. DAZN will broadcast the event.

"He's never been on my radar, ever," an upbeat Hutchinson told The Ring.

"Only since ten days ago, whenever the fight was made. It's money in the bank in January. He's the only one capable of fighting on that date. Why not?"

"To be honest with you, if anything it’s a step back but doesn't make a difference to me. A fight's a fight, I believe in my capability and believe the job will get done.”

Most hark back to Hutchinson’s unanimous decision victory over former world title challenger Craig Richards on the Queensberry-Matchroom ‘5v5’ card in June 2024 as an example of exactly what the 27-year-old is capable of when he is fully fit and focused.

Those who have followed Hutchinson since the start of his career were pleased to see him finally put everything together on a big stage but believed that the win over the solid Richards would be the ideal launchpad to even bigger things.

That opportunity came just three months later but he was dropped twice and outpointed by Buatsi on the undercard of Daniel Dubois’ IBF heavyweight title defence against Anthony Joshua.

Hutchinson agrees that people have have still only seen a glimpse of what he is capable of.

“It wasn't my best,” he said of the Richards fight. “There's loads more to come. A hundred million percent.

“I was better in the fight with the German [a second round stoppage of Martin Houben] at the start of that year than I was ever in the Richards fight. If I would have fought him and it wasn't the German [that night], I would have knocked Richards spark out.”

That stoppage of Houben was the catalyst for a whirlwind six months for Hutchinson.

The win persuaded Queensberry to select him as their light heavyweight representative for the ‘5v5’ show and he impressively outboxed the favoured Richards.

Riding the hot hand, Queensberry put Hutchinson directly into a WBO interim title fight with Buatsi. Having started 2024 in the wilderness, Hutchinson ended it by boxing in front of 90,000 fans at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Looking back, Hutchinson believes that the toll of taking part in three high-pressure fights within six months affected him against Buatsi. Now rested and refocused, he looked back to his best as he dismantled the solid Mark Jeffers in seven rounds this past October.

"When I would fight, I'd have a few weeks of a break. I was running myself into the ground. I wasn't giving myself rest," he said.

"That's where it caught up, in the Buatsi fight. The most important fight for me, it wasn't there because my body wasn't getting rest. I was here, there and everywhere.

"Listen, put Buatsi from his last fight in with me, but that's another story."