Craig Richards says he would be open to facing both Joshua Buatsi and Dmitry Bivol again.
Richards was beaten by WBA light heavyweight champion, Bivol last May and more recently by Buatsi earlier this month in highly-competitive, close fights, which both went the distance.
Promoter Eddie Hearn told IFLTV on Monday that he is planning for Bivol to make a defence of his title, likely against Buatsi after Canelo Alvarez opted to face Gennady Golovkin in a trilogy bout instead of an immediate rematch with the Russian, who claimed a dominant unanimous decision win on May 7.
However, if the fight does not materialise, ‘Spider’ admits he is keen to rematch both.
“It kind of depends on what he [Buatsi] wants to do,” Richards told proboxing-fans.com when asked about a potential rematch on Friday.
“If he wanted to do that again, I would be happy to do that again.
“The fans would love it, because it was such an interesting fight.
“We made great dance partners. We both brought the heat and I believe we’d both bring the heat again.
“So, I think it’s something the fans would love to see and I’m sure we’d both like to do it again and it was entertaining, I liked it.”
Asked about a second outing with Bivol, the 32-year-old replied: “A million per cent.
“If any of them want to fight before or they don’t want to fight each other or one of them is tied up, I’m here.
“Trust me, all these big fights, any opportunities I’m there for it.
“If Bivol hasn’t got a dance partner, I’ve got my dancing shoes on!”
Former world title challenger, Anthony Yarde was vocal in backing Richards to beat Buatsi and is in line for a shot at the winner of the upcoming unification clash between WBC and IBF champion, Artur Beterbiev and WBO titlist, Joe Smith Jr in New York on June 18.
‘Spider’, who has shared several rounds of sparring with Yarde has ruled out a future showdown with his compatriot.
“I like Anthony, he’s not someone I ever really would like to [fight].
“Because, I look at boxing sometimes and I think, when you beat somebody, you’ve kind of taken them off their path and he’s not really someone I think, ‘I was right to take him off his path.’
“We get on well. We came in the game kind of together. We were grinding together. We turned pro [at] kind of [a] similar [time] and he’s been a good friend.
“We’ve got a lot of respect. We’ve sparred loads of rounds as he said before and there’s respect between us both and a level of friendship we have there.
“So, he’s not someone I look and say, ‘I want Anthony’ at all.
Watch the full interview with Craig Richards below:
