YARDE STILL A WINNER IN DEFEAT

By Frank Warren

ON SATURDAY NIGHT at Wembley Anthony Yarde showed that he belongs, truly belongs in the top echelon of the world light heavyweight division.

Anthony himself will take no particular pride in coming second, but in so many ways he proved himself as a world class fighter in the way he traded blow for blow with unified and unbeaten world champion Artur Beterbiev.

Whenever Anthony takes on new frontiers there are always a few comments about his track record not being up to much and not getting him up to scratch for the challenge in front of him.

I know I can sound like a broken record here, but the facts are he came to us with just 12 pretty routine amateur fights under his belt. No real pedigree or upbringing in the sport, no international experience, no major tournaments or Olympic medals.

Just a very raw rookie with plenty of charisma and lots of ambition. We liked what we saw and believed in him, but we also knew we would have to match him accordingly and that it would have to be a gradual process.

The aim, as it is with many of our fighters, was to steer him slowly and surely towards a No.1 spot that would ultimately get him a world title fight when the time was right.

Anthony has developed into a fine professional who can compete at the very highest level. Beterbiev said on Saturday night that it was the toughest fight of his career and rightly pointed out that he has time on his side.

At a very athletic 31-years-old, Anthony does still have time and I am convinced his time will come.

The experience and battle hardiness he has built up over both fights against Sergey Kovalev and Beterbiev will ultimately work hugely in his favour. He has gone in against the very best and not been out of place in either battle.

The fight on Saturday was boxing at its very best. It was captivating stuff from start to finish. Somebody said it was like an eight-round Hagler-Hearns and I go along with this assessment.

Anthony will not be out of the picture for very long. His rankings will remain high and we will get him back into position. In the meantime, he has gained a new army of fans who admire and respect what he did in that ring at Wembley.

I honestly think Anthony has got the beating of virtually every other light heavyweight out there and, had the belts not been unified, I am pretty certain he would have parted Joe Smith jr from his WBO belt had the fight come around in time.

In closing on this subject, I must pay my own tribute to the crowd at Wembley on Saturday, who made it a magical occasion and showed why boxing is the best sport in the world when all the ingredients are in place. The old place hasn’t rocked like that for many a year and it was the fans who made it so special.

IT WASN’T OUR night when it came to the light heavyweights on Saturday with our young star Karol Itauma suffering a first defeat in his first title fight.

It was such a shame because there was a perfect script to be followed with his brother Moses making his professional debut less than an hour later.

Karol discovered that this is a tough old business and you can never take winning for granted. He will be very down on himself but he has simply got to dust himself down and put it down to experience.

You can learn much more from adversity than everything being plain sailing. It is about how you respond. A loss on the record will mean absolutely nothing if he comes back stronger and shows that lessons have been taken on board.

Karol is clearly a huge talent and now he just needs to display the heart and resolve to overcome this setback.

OUR NEW HEAVY Moses made very short work of his opponent and introduced himself to the professional arena in fine style. Obviously, with having a pro debut at just 18, we were never going to place him in too much peril. It was about him getting used to the routine, the gloves, the environment and the fact he was taking on his first opponent over the age of 17.

SO SAUDI ARABIA awaits the arrival of our man Tommy Fury and his rival Jake Paul for their long-awaited grudge match on February 26 and I am delighted that Tommy is finally getting the opportunity to settle a social media driven feud and earn some life-changing money into the bargain.

There will be a lot of pressure on Tommy heading into the fight, what with carrying the family name into Jake’s first venture into taking on a boxer. I’m pretty sure Jake won’t hesitate to crank up the heat as the fight draws closer and I suspect we will be in for a compelling spectacle in the Saudi sunshine.