{"id":37944,"date":"2025-08-01T17:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/37944\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T17:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:16:14","slug":"frank-warren-signs-two-top-light-heavyweights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/37944\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Warren signs two top light-heavyweights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hall of Fame promoter, Frank Warren, has made a dramatic double swoop at 175lbs to secure the signatures of former WBO Interim light-heavyweight champion Joshua Buatsi and newly-crowned European king Bradley Rea.<\/p>\n

2016 Olympic medalist Joshua Buatsi (19-1, 13 KOs) is a former WBO Interim, European, British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight title holder, and Bradley Rea (21-1, 10 KOs) won the EBU belt in his last fight in June.<\/p>\n

Warren was elated with his new business dealings,\u00a0\u201cI am delighted to bring Joshua on board with us at Queensberry and to showcase him on DAZN<\/a>. The light heavyweights possess so much quality, and Josh will be a major mover in the division and right in the mix for world title contention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bivol and Beterbiev settle their trilogy sequence the division should open up and there will be massive fights to be made. There is also the Benavidez-Yarde world title fight coming up in Riyadh and Josh will be a natural candidate to take on the winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, we will keep Josh busy and ready for the major challenges, with regular activity being something he has lacked in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

On signing a European light-heavyweight champion, Frank commented, \u201cBrad is fully deserving of this opportunity to shine on a major platform in DAZN<\/a>. I greatly admire the way he stuck at it and kept himself ready when nothing really was happening for him, through no fault of his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it takes a little while for fighters to find their optimum weight and Brad is clearly now a force at light heavyweight, emphasised by his recent European title success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe light heavyweight division is booming with so much talent and great matches to be made. Brad will now be part of this, and I am looking forward to getting him going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Buatsi<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old from Croydon suffered a first professional setback in February when he lost his Interim world title to Callum Smith in a stirring encounter that will come into strong consideration when \u2018fight of the year\u2019 contenders are determined.<\/p>\n

The Riyadh reverse has not diminished the stock of the Ghanaian-born 175-pounder, who secured his WBO Interim honours with a defeat of Scotsman Willy Hutchinson at Wembley Stadium on the Joshua-Dubois card last September, having previously overcome European champion Dan Azeez seven months earlier to win British and EBU belts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter speaking with multiple promoters, Queensberry has a plan I’m comfortable with,\u201d explained Buatsi. \u201cI\u2019m a British fighter, and the support I get from UK fans means everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like fighting in front of a home crowd – the energy, the passion, it drives me. With Queensberry, I\u2019ve got a team that understands that and backs me properly here in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, their international links mean I can still make moves in the US and globally. Most importantly, they\u2019ve got the right plan for my career – not just big fights, but the right fights, at the right time as I’m on the journey to become a World Champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Joshua<\/p>\n

Bradley Rea<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old won his EBU belt via a unanimous decision over Shakan Pitters at the end of June<\/a> after previously suffering a series of misfortunes with opponents dropping out at short notice.<\/p>\n

Rea, known as \u2018The Sting\u2019, jumped up two weights – largely campaigning at middleweight since making his debut in 2018 – following his English title points defeat to Tyler Denny in late 2022.<\/p>\n

While awaiting a meaningful opportunity, the Manchester man recorded five straight stoppage victories, with only one of them making it into the third round.<\/p>\n

Now, with the currency of his European title and the backing of Queensberry, Brad will be seeking to test himself at the highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited because I feel like I am finally at the stage I belong at,\u201d said Rea. \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to be on these big shows, big platforms and in fights against big names.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like Frank and Queensberry can deliver that for me. So, I am excited about the future, definitely. This is the place to be, especially for the light heavyweights. I want to be in the big fights against the best names, and this is part of the reason why I was so eager to sign with Frank.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can deliver the big fights, and he can deliver the big names.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"European<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame promoter, Frank Warren, has made a dramatic double swoop at 175lbs to secure the signatures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-37944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}