After nearly a year away from the ring, amid rejected bouts and promoter switches, Joshua Buatsi is desperate to get back to business.

Since then the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist has changed promoters, swapping Matchroom for Boxxer, and faces Poland’s Pawel Stepien in his first bout under new management.

The man nicknamed ‘Just Business’ insists his extended absence from the ring will not stop him doing his job and making it 17 straight wins in Birmingham on Saturday.

“Whether a year, 10 years off, the goal remains the same,” he said. “I’m happy to be back, I’ve got a good competitor, I’m here to win.

“There is no other language or thinking process, I’m here to win and look good doing it.”

Buatsi has long been tipped as the next big thing in British boxing, and seemed on track for a world title fight against WBA (Super) champion Dmitry Bivol following his win over Richards.

However, that fight has yet to come to pass, with previous promoters Matchroom revealing Buatsi turned down a seven-figure sum to fight the Russian.

Buatsi says the Bivol offer came with “many caveats” and it would have been “very short-sighted” to accept, and he has been focused on getting ready for the next chance he was happy to take.

That has come in the form of 32-year-old Stepien – and Buatsi cannot wait to feel the energy of fight night once again.

That anticipation was clear in the weigh-in, with an intense stare down after Buatsi came in at 12st 6lb – 1lb lighter than his opponent.

Buatsi edged closer to Stepien during the face-off, almost touching the Pole with the beard he always grows before bouts before shaving prior to the big night.

‘What people say on social media is irrelevant’

“It’s left me very eager to get back in the ring,” Buatsi said of his 350-day absence. “I’ve not stopped my pattern of activity, I’ve stayed in the gym and ready.

“I stay positive, I’ve been to [the United] States a few times. It’s been about keeping with the lifestyle, keeping fight-ready to an extent.

“I’m very excited. When I get out in the ring, with the whole fighting outfit and the audience cheering, it feels good.”

The switch from Matchroom to Boxxer – which Buatsi said was in part to get his fights reaching a wider television audience – has, like so much extra-curricular activity in boxing, distracted from the sport itself.

Buatsi is keen to put that behind him, at least until after Saturday night.

“I’m on the positive side of it, it’s a great opportunity,” he told BBC Sport of the move. “What people say on social media, what these people say is irrelevant to me.

“It’s part of it, ultimately I will be judged on fights. All the other stuff that goes around it, if people want to talk they will talk. But on the night, we see what happens.”

As he gears up for his ring return, Buatsi’s name will again be attached to some big ticket fights – whether that is Bivol, or one of the other British contenders in the light-heavyweight division, such as Anthony Yarde or Dan Azeez.

First up is Stepien and, while Buatsi will enter the ring at Resorts World Arena as heavy favourite, he cannot afford to underestimate a fighter who is unbeaten in 19 professional bouts.

‘I can feel the frustration from missing big nights’

“He wants to be in this type of fight, we’ll scrap and see what happens,” Buatsi said of his opponent. “But it’s a fight that I’ll win.

“Whatever we have to do, we will do. It will be competitive, but the aim is to get this won and move on the conversation.”

Boxing lately has been dominated by fights which have not happened rather than the ones which have. Buatsi, having spent a year out of the loop, does not want that to define his career.

“You want to have something tangible to show,” he said. “All of us at the Olympics had something tangible in the medals we want. Professionally, we want the belt, for people to take a picture for their friends. We want the title.

“In our 40s, I want to be able to say ‘see that guy, we had a good scrap’. The public wants to see it. You don’t want to say ‘I should have fought this guy or that guy’.”

Buatsi will headline the card on Saturday night, while Wales’ Olympic champion Lauren Price, also unbeaten, is on the undercard, as is Ben Whittaker, a fellow 2016 medallist who is returning from injury.

But most of the focus will be on ‘Just Business’, and whether he can start to truly deliver on his early career promise.

“You can’t look past Saturday, it will be a tough night,” Boxxer promoter Ben Shalom told the pre-fight news conference on Thursday.

“Pawel has been preparing a lot longer, we only signed Buatsi six weeks ago.

“But I’m excited to see him back in the ring, I can feel the frustration from missing the big nights.

“There’s a lot of pressure on Joshua, so we are looking for a statement performance on Saturday.”