Lyndon Arthur vs Anthony Yarde 2

Lyndon Arthur and Anthony Yarde will be one of 10 fights that will be taking place on the fight card at the Copper Box Arena on Saturday 4th December 2021.

This boxing event has a stacked card with a large number of unbeaten fighters taking place in the event as they continue their respective journeys up the ranking to earn themselves a world title shot somewhere down the line.

Both Arthur and Yarde go into their second bout against each other in good form as both men came out on top last time out, making for a great fight on the cards.

With careers possibly on the line, it will be interesting to see which boxers come out on top in East London.

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Undercard
Sonny Liston Ali (debut) vs Lee Hallet (1-34-0) - Super Lightweight
Umar Khan (2-0-0) vs Luke Merrifield (0-4-0) - Featherweight
Masood Abdulah (2-0-0) vs Paul Holt (8-10-0) - Super Featherweight
Charles Frankham (3-0-0) vs Lee Glover (11-6-0) - Super Featherweight
Karol Itauma (4-0-0) vs TBA - Light Heavyweight
George Fox (4-0-0) vs Kamil Sokolowski (10-23-2) - Heavyweight
Dennis McCann (10-0-0) vs Juan Jose Jurado (15-4-3) - Bantamweight
Sam Noakes (7-0-0) vs Shaun Cooper (11-2-0) - Lightweight

Co-Main Event
Hamzah Sheeraz (13-0-0) vs Bradley Skeete (29-3-0) - Super Welterweight

Main Event
Lyndon Arthur (19-0-0) vs Anthony Yarde (21-2-0) - Light Heavyweight

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...cid=entnewsntp

I’ve booked tickets for this one.

Looking forward to it.

This is going to be a cracker. Think Yarde will be more aggressive this time and that will make him more vulnerable to the counters from Arthur.

Do not know who will win this but want Yarde but Arthur is a class act.

Lyndon Arthur says Anthony Yarde is the 'perfect dance partner'

Lyndon Arthur has labelled Anthony Yarde as the 'perfect dance partner' ahead of their eagerly-anticipated rematch.

The pair will square off again at the Copper Box Arena this weekend with a shot at the WBO light heavyweight title which is currently in the possession of Joe Smith Jr potentially up for grabs.

And despite the fact that Arthur's uncle Pat Barrett, 54, nearly came to blows with his rival trainer Tunde Ajayi, 58, at the pre-fight press conference in October, he insists that 'there's no animosity from my side'.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Arthur, 30, even went as far as to describe Yarde as 'just an opponent to me'.

He said: "It's not that I wouldn't have done the rematch, it's if I had had it my way I'd be fighting for a world title now.

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"He's my perfect dance partner at this stage in my career to take me to the next level.

"He's just an opponent to me. There's no animosity from my side. He's just an opponent and it's business."

And while Arthur believes his fellow Brit will have learned from the mistakes he made in their first fight, he says it will not be enough to have his hand raised the second time round.

When asked if he is ready for any changes Yarde might make, he replied: "The version of me will depend on him.

"He's going to have to change, but he'll gas.

"What people don't seem to understand is if he fights the same fight or a different fight, I am still going to win."

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Providing Arthur gets past Yarde, there are plenty of big fights to be made in the offing in a division that also includes Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi.

As for what's next for both fighters, however, Frank Warren has done his best to give them both what they want, although admitted there is a lot at stake when they step into the ring on Saturday night.

He wrote in his column for The Daily Star: "This time there will be no excuses when Lyndon Arthur and Anthony Yarde meet.

"This time they will settle their differences once and for all in the ring.

"Arthur will take on Yarde in a rematch on December 4 at the Copper Box Arena in London.

"The Manchester man came out on top when the pair met late last year.

"I understand he wanted the return fight in his home city but we just couldn’t get a suitable venue for the time the clash had to happen.

"So we go to London again for what should finally settle the bitter rivalry between the two.

"Back in December of last year, Arthur won the fight behind his brilliant jab.

"Yarde got his tactics all wrong, leaving his vicious attacks until the later rounds when he didn’t have enough time to put a dent in the Manchester fighter.

"While Arthur feels he had a busted right hand so was only boxing with arm for most of the contest.

"But, for whatever reason, the fight never really caught fire with only a limited number of spectators allowed in due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

"This time we are expecting a full house and that will only help make it a thrilling fight.

"Yarde knows he has to get it right this time. Another defeat could really hurt his career.

"He knows what Arthur is about now so he has to go out there and put it on him early.

"Otherwise he will be chasing the fight again and that won’t be easy against a slick operator like Arthur.

"The Manchester fighter has a lot to lose in this one, too. He is currently the No 1 with the WBO in the light-heavyweight rankings.

"If he fails to beat Yarde for a second time then he could see his world title hopes derailed."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...cid=entnewsntp

Yarde has to win.

Arthur looks in awe of Yarde, he needs to get some confidence as he seems like a bit of a fan boy of Yarde.

I had Arthur winning the first fight 8-4.

Yarde will go for the KO and it will be over by 9 rounds.

Does Yarde even deserve the rematch?

Anthony Yarde tells how grief left him in a 'daze' for first Lyndon Arthur fight

It was not until the week of last December's fight with Lyndon Arthur that the true effects of a horrific nine months hit Anthony Yarde.

The light heavyweight was on the comeback trail and preparing for a defining test - a year after suffering the first defeat of his career against then WBO champion Sergey Kovalev.

But Yarde couldn't keep the thoughts of grief far from his mind. He had lost his father and three grandparents to coronavirus within days of each other in March 2020.

He kept telling himself, "be professional, be professional", as his fight night with fellow Briton Arthur approached. Yarde had competed in and won a fight just six months after the deaths. That bout helped to keep his mind off the loss, but finally the pain caught up with him.

"Everything that happened that year, it all hit me at the wrong time," Yarde said.

"Sometimes you get a delayed reaction and it was only in fight week when I started thinking about it consistently.

"I started having tears and battling myself to say, 'No, I need to be professional and I can't think about my emotions right now.'"

Arthur was given a split-decision win in a fight that lacked any real action. Yarde was devastated by the result. Looking back on the bout, he cannot recognise himself. "Timid" is how he describes his performance.

"I'm very inexperienced in the ring and usually my mentality helps me a lot," Yarde said. "But in the fight, I even went back to the wrong corner about three times because my head wasn't there.

"In the ring, I can't even explain it. It's like I wasn't there. I felt so comfortable but when I watched it back, I couldn't believe it. When I was in there, it was like a daze."

So Yarde took himself and his immediate family away. Halfway through a two-week holiday in Mexico, where he would walk on the beach at night and worry about "mermaids" emerging out of the ocean, Yarde began to feel like himself again.

"I honestly feel it's about giving yourself the time to understand what's happened and process what's happened," Yarde said.

"After a week, I felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off me. As soon as I got back to London, I called Tunde [Ajayi, Yarde's coach] and said we needed to have a meeting.

"We all met up and discussed changes that needed to happen. It was a three-hour conversation. I looked at everyone and said, 'If everyone is carrying on in this journey then you need to be on the same page as me because I'm ready to work'."

Now Yarde has an opportunity to wipe out the "mark" on his record left by Arthur. His rival will be supremely confident in the rematch, having insisted he beat Yarde with one hand tied behind his back because of an arm injury.

"I went into that fight with two shoulder injuries and a groin problem, but us as fighters, we never speak about it because we're athletes and this is a battle game," Yarde said in response.

"I genuinely don't believe Lyndon has the beating of me in terms of any attribute except for myself. The only reason that fight was so close is because of myself."

Manchester's Arthur has a different view. He is confident he can knock out Yarde once he manoeuvres what he expects to be a fast start from the Londoner. "He can't outbox me so he's going to have to rush me. He's going to have to change, but he'll gas," Arthur predicted.

Yarde laughed off his opponent's assessment, saying: "In my career, I've not shown any problems with my fitness or my abilities."

But the 30-year-old has "learned his lesson", as he puts it. He concedes he should never have been fighting so soon after the death of his father and grandmother and expects if he had gone straight into the rematch, it would have produced the same result.

Yarde says he holds no ill will towards Arthur. He accepts the result, even if he still thinks he won the first fight. He sent Arthur a message after the fight congratulating him, saying: "I know what it means for his career."

The 30-year-old has not gutted his team as many expected after the second loss of his career. Instead he added former fighter and respected trainer James Cook to his coaching ranks.

"As soon as things go wrong, suddenly I'm a bad boxer who needs to change my team. Everyone becomes an expert," Yarde said.

"We live in the Floyd Mayweather era. People need to understand Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Cesar Chavez - all these legends had their ups and downs."

Ultimately Yarde puts the defeat down to his own "decision-making" during the fight made worse by a clouded mind that was on everything but the opponent in front of him.

Yarde, though, was happy to hear Arthur admit to being hurt with a body shot in the final rounds. It gives the Londoner confidence that now he is fully focused, with his "mental screw" back in place, he can gain revenge over his domestic rival.

"There's no doubt [the loss] was a blessing," Yarde said.

"With the Kovalev fight, I feel I got too much credit. I didn't win the fight. I went in there and gave it my all. This fight was completely different because I didn't give it my all.

"The Beast has come back. They haven't got me angry, but I've learned my lesson.

"I'll be more of myself. You're going to get spurts of explosive action. You're going to get smarter boxing skills and more changes."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/59430253

Evening.

Very cagey first round. Skeetes.

Sheeraz v Skeete on now. Both tall fighters but Sheeraz too cautious in the first round. He must open up and relax.

Sheeraz struggling to land again. 2-0 Skeete.

Skeete is enjoying himself and making Sheeraz look slow and ponderous.

All Skeete so far and won all 3 rounds.

Skeete has definitely lost a beat or two like most older boxers and it can be enough to mean you can't quite react quick enough to not get caught. Sheeraz getting closer to landing that big overhand right. Still 3 up.

Better 4th round for Sheeraz who was busier but still think Skeete took it.

Trainer of Sheeraz saying he must let his hands go an be busier. Ingle saying Skeete has won and in the lead after the 5th.

Sheeraz is poor and must go for it after 6 rounds he has done nothing.

Skeete hurt and struggling after 8th round and stopped in 9th. Very lucky to pull that one off.

Yarde starts fast and aggressive to win the 1st round. Arthur trying to weather the storm.

1 nil Yarde

Arthur getting in close and smothering Yarde in the 2nd round. Closer round as Yarde was less effective.

2 nil

Yarde landing some beautiful hard fast punches in the 3rd round. Arthur expecting Yarde to slow down.

3 nil

Yarde stops Arthur in the 4th with hurtful punches and very impressive performance from him. Brutal punches and attack by Yarde.

Yarde should get a title shot next.