Willy Hutchinson insists that he is still as determined as ever to reach the summit of the sport.

On October 4, The Ring's No.10-ranked light heavyweight will return from a 13-month absence and take on Chorley’s Mark Jeffers (20-1, 7 KOs) at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, Scotland.

Hutchinson (18-2, 13 KOs) has always been a mercurial but frustrating fighter but, in June 2024, he finally fulfilled his potential and produced an excellent display to comprehensively outpoint Craig Richards on the Queensberry vs. Matchroom 5v5 card.

That victory earned him an interim WBO title fight with Joshua Buatsi. The 27-year-old Scotsman performed bravely but was dropped twice and lost a split decision.

Hutchinson has been notable by his absence since.

Earlier this year he spent a brief period training with Shane McGuigan and was preparing to return against the WBO’s No.4 ranked light heavyweight, Zach Parker, until injury forced him to withdraw.

Hutchinson is now fully fit and will aim to rebuild the momentum he had begun to build against Jeffers who recently lost his undefeated record to Louisiana’s Sean Hemphill and will be stepping up from super middleweight.

Hutchinson hasn’t spent the past ten months poring over every frame of the fight with Buatsi, agonising about what he did and didn’t do. In fact, he hasn’t even sat down to watch the fight back once.

“It means nothing to me. I learned what I had to learn from it and it is what it is. Do you know what I mean? I haven't watched it back,” he told Queensberry.

“I'm not interested in it.

“I don’t need to reassure myself how bad or good it was. I know it wasn’t good for me. I don't need to see it, I just need to get it with both hands next time.”

Self-confidence is an important part of any fighter's make-up but for somebody with Hutchinson’s style of fighting and mentality, it is absolutely crucial.

Losing to Buatsi hasn’t dented his conviction that he will go on to become a world champion and he will need every ounce of that belief if he is to achieve his goal. The loss may not have affected the faith Hutchinson has in his own ability, but his rivals will have have taken note of the way Buatsi was able to restrict his movement and hurt him to the body in the second half of their fight.

None of that is of any concern to Hutchinson who isn’t the type to let doubt infiltrate his thoughts.

“Never in my life. If I start to doubt myself, I'll never box because I believe if you start to doubt yourself, boxing's not for you no more. It's too hard of a sport. If you haven't got it in here [heart], enough’s enough. Boxing is all well and good but if you don't believe that you’re the best or you're going to do it, it’s not worth a shilling, is it?” he said.

“Especially to me, it's not worth nothing to me if I don't believe I'm going to do it all the way. I've done it since being 9 years old. I was amateur [youth] world champion. I'm ready to become the professional world champion. If there’s any doubt at all that I couldn't, enough’s enough for me.

“I believe now is the time. In this next 12 month period, I believe I could be the biggest name in boxing.”