Light heavyweight contender Joshua Buatsi is certainly open to facing domestic rivals Anthony Yarde and Dan Azeez, but first he wants to get himself in line for a world title fight.

Buatsi, ranked at number one by the WBA, faces Pawel Stepien at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham on Saturday.

He needs a win to keep his WBA ranking in place.

The current WBA world champion Dmitry Bivol made a mandatory defense back in November, so another mandatory is not due for some time.

Buatsi has been away from the ring for nearly a year due to promotional issues.

The inactivity had made him very focused on the task at hand against Stepien.

"I know he hasn't lost before, 18-0-1 with a good knockout percentage so a Polish fighter that's going to be hungry, that's going to fight, that's going to have the mentality of if I beat this guy who's highly ranked it puts him up there," Buatsi told Sky Sports. "That makes him a dangerous fighter."

Beyond his upcoming fight, there are domestic showdowns to be made with Yarde and Azeez.

"These are fights that are available and possible," Buatsi said. "It would be good to really mix it with these other light-heavies from England.

"Of course, we're concentrating on world title honors but fortunately there's good fighters in England in my division and it would be nice for us to fight each other."

Buatsi gave praise to Yarde for his performance against unified world champion Artur Beterbiev.

He believes the time could be now to make a fight with Yarde - after years of back-and-forth banter between the two.

"He showed bags of heart, bags and bags of heart," Buatsi said. "I'll only concentrate on the heart because I think he showed it in abundance. Because there were times when he was badly hurt but the guy wants to carry on and fair play to him. He fought back, he fought back, he tried.

"At the end of the day he has fought for a world title twice and I haven't. I know he was stopped in both of them but he gave a good account of himself. I'll always give you the respect you deserve. Maybe now is the time to get it, maybe in a month's time, two months whatever it is. I'm sure he has his views about it as well."