Joshua Buatsi vs Craig Richards RESULT: Buatsi wins via unanimous decision

They said it would be the toughest test of Joshua’s Buatsi’s career thus far. So it proved and he came through it on a memorable fight night on their doorsteps.

Craig Richards made a hugely valiant fist of it but Buatsi won the fight which, hopefully, propels him towards a fight for the WBA world light-heavyweight title of which Dmitry Bivol surprisingly relieved Canelo Alvarez a fortnight earlier.

He did so by a wider margin according to this correspondent’s calculations – 117-112 – than the narrower scores carded by the official judges. Still it was unanimous which was fine with Buatsi, although some of the rounds in this very local derby were closer than the overall verdict suggested.

The crown of South London boxing now rests on Buatsi’s head, deservedly. It may seem to be something of trifle in the scheme of his lofty ambitions but it is won in the kind of fight any prospective world champion needs en route to the summit of the hardest game.

For Buatsi this was a risk to take, given his unbeaten record putting him within touching distance of a world title shot. But with that opportunity still in abeyance he was running out of warm-up opponents and Richards brought with him a loyal following which would help market this fight.

Joshua Buatsi’s win and unbeaten record puts him within reach of a world title shot

There was a reasonable, enthusiastic turn-out at the 02, even if the agents of Rent-A-Crowd had been out and about locally.

So heavily was Buatsi favoured with the bookies that one bold punter took the plunge on him to pull off a knock-out in the 23rd minute exactly.

If that had happened the British Board of Boxing would have been obliged to make close inspection of the betting patterns. Although the long history and sharp rivalry between these two boys from next door ‘hoods made collusion in some kind of betting coup about as likely as the nearby Thames freezing over on this balmy May night.

Joshua Buatsi was made to wait by Craig Richards at the start but that did not deter him

The fight was often closer than the judges scores suggested, but Joshua Buatsi deserved his win

Richards did pull one stroke. That of using his negotiated right to enter the arena last to keep Buatsi waiting in the ring for several long minutes.

Not that Buatsi was cold at the onset. Having weighed Richards up he blitzed him at the end of the first round. As he did in the second.

The vocal majority in the crowd were behind Richards but Buatsi’s speed was against him. Richards became in urgent need of breaking out of his early hesitancy. He showed enough signs of doing that to steal the fifth but was even out-jabbed in the sixth before sharing an even seventh. Despite getting the better of that war within a battle Richards came to the last three championship rounds in need of a KO in my book. In the tenth Buatsi came closest to doing that despite losing his gumshield in mid-round. Richards gave everything in the 11th without winning the round and did not have quite enough left for a grandstand last round.

Something of a risk it had been – but one worth taking on all our behalfs.

Craig Richards gave his all to the bout but needed too much too late in the fight

Joshua Buatsi remains unbeaten and could have earned himself a world title shot

Recap Sportsmail’s live blog as Joshua Buatsi defeated Craig Richards on Saturday night.