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Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Anthony Yarde faces toughest test of unbeaten 18-fight career against WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev.
Anthony Yarde faces the toughest test of his unbeaten 18-fight career as he heads into Russia's industrial heartland next weekend in a bold bid to dethrone Sergey Kovalev from the World Boxing Organisation light heavyweight crown.
Kovalev defends the title he first won way back in 2013 from Nathan Cleverly in Cardiff, in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, where his father was a welder and his mother used to drive a forklift truck.
Brought up in old Soviet Russia, in an area where much of the population are blue collar workers, and where the city was once dubbed 'Tankograd' due to the manufacture, decades ago, of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers, Kovalev has found riches fighting in the United States.
Times have changed, but there is steel running through the heart and will of 36-year-old Kovalev, whose long career features one draw and three defeats, twice by the brilliance of the now retired American standout Andre Ward.
But there is a sense that Hackney's Yarde will need a touch of genius, more than simply the power that has brought him 17 knockouts from 18 fights to claim what would rank as an outstanding scalp in his first world title challenge.
https://s.yimg.com/it/api/res/1.2/Lu...d433a31ec8715b
The quiet Kovalev - known as 'Krusher' for his power and with a 76 per cent KO ratio from his 33 victories in 37 contests - has fought for more than just personal accomplishments.
He has been open about part of his desire to better his wider family's standing in life, having brought his parents to the USA.
Prior to the Ward defeats, he had claimed three of the four light-heavyweight belts. Indeed, Kovalev was the man to make a slumbering light-heavyweight division 'live' in the last five years.
Yarde is certainly up for the challenge, and has shown his determination in taking this step up against a formidable champion in his own back yard.
The 27-year-old Londoner - who has fought 51 rounds to Kovalev's 162 as a professional - is predicting a knockout victory, and is prepared to go into the trenches.
Yarde told The Telegraph: "What's in my mind is tunnel vision, winning by KO. "However it happens, or whenever it happens, nobody knows. I haven’t got a magic wand so I can’t tell you how.
https://s.yimg.com/it/api/res/1.2/KW...ca109245f6453f
"Even this fight, I’m not treating it any different. I’m still not going to want to take any punishment and dish out as much punishment as I can in as short a space as I can. I’m not going to be reckless."
Tunde Ajayi, Yarde's trainer and manager, played down Kovalev's tough upbringing, and said that he believes the timing is perfect.
“Look, Kovalev is fighting in his home town, but his home is now California, let’s get that right. Paul Young has a beautiful song, 'Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home. He’s been westernised. The tractor days are gone. He’s waking up in silk pyjamas.”
In other words, according to Tunde, as 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler once said, in silk pyjamas there are no runs at 5am, with the British fighter and trainer believing that the hardened edge of Kovalev has gone.
Yarde has excellent fundamentals, but must now apply them for the first time at an elite level, against an accomplished opponent, who is competing in his 16th world title contest.
The Briton will certainly never been hit as hard, and experience may be the key factor.
But if the 27-year-old Londoner produces his best qualities on the night, and he has the skillset, he could return from Russia with the spoils, and a famous underdog victory to launch him on the world stage.
Sergey Kovalev vs Anthony Yarde for the WBO light heavyweight title is live on BT Sport on Saturday August 24
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/ant...143916067.html
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Without putting a huge amount of thought into it. I've gone from thinking it's a step too far for Yarde, to he's going to fuck Kovalev up.
That is all.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
I have added a poll and I think Yarde will win this too.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
I have added a poll and I think Yarde will win this too.
Why am I not surprised! Hey, “Lions in the camp” might win. But logically, what can make anybody think that there isn’t a massive difference in levels?
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
I have added a poll and I think Yarde will win this too.
Why am I not surprised! Hey, “Lions in the camp” might win. But logically, what can make anybody think that there isn’t a massive difference in levels?
From what I have seen of Yarde, he has been outclassing his opponents with such ease that he could possibly be a world class fighter.
Coupled with the fact that Kov is not the force he once was.
Equals a victory for our man.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Too hard to call this as Yarde just hasn't fought anyone good. He'll be getting hit harder than he ever has been, so who knows what happens. He is also a lot younger, looks very strong and is a natural athlete and Kovalev seems to still be hitting the bottle, that's the flip side and it's a strong case. Should be an interesting fight.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Amazing how many articles can be written not mentioning his racist past or violence towards women, truly sad that some get to be monsters without acknowledgement of their horrific deeds. Let’s talk about toilets
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
I have a feeling off of a top notch win over Alvarez that Kovalev may very well be 36 going on 46 and come in deflated. Big experience gap, first time in Russia for Yarde and has he really had a tough demanding fight yet?
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
This fight all depends on how much Kovalev has left. If he fights as well as he did his last fight, he should easily win. You just never know how hard he will train and how hard he hits the liquor.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
With the Canelo carrot dangling Kov will be on point :pimp2: Yarde manned up going to Russia :o but he gets beat up bad :eek:
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Like Adrian Balboa told Rocky when he went to Russia '' YOU CANT WIN! ''
The kids (Yarde) got cojones and I like it!
Risk it all or play it safe, he clearly wants to be taken seriously so he opted to take a very dangerous fight at such a very young stage of his career!
Either Yarde is gonna highlight reel KO Kovalev in Russia in front of his countrymen or Kovalev is gonna knock out Yarde in brutal devastating fashion!
One of the most compelling fights this year, can’t wait. I really have no opinion on this fight. As literally nothing would surprise me. But it won't be close. It'll be a dominating win for either man.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
What will it mean if Yarde wins..
Kovalev is still a very dangerous opponent with a vast amount of experience..I don’t know how Yarde can win this unless he hits the belly EARLY.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
imp
What will it mean if Yarde wins..
Kovalev is still a very dangerous opponent with a vast amount of experience..I don’t know how Yarde can win this unless he hits the belly EARLY.
Yarde has hardly any amateur/professional boxing experience so if he wins this it would be up there as one of the great title wins away from home. Yarde probably needs a knockout just to get the decision over there. :)
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
imp
What will it mean if Yarde wins..
Kovalev is still a very dangerous opponent with a vast amount of experience..I don’t know how Yarde can win this unless he hits the belly EARLY.
Yarde has hardly any amateur/professional boxing experience so if he wins this it would be up there as one of the great title wins away from home. Yarde probably needs a knockout just to get the decision over there. :)
IF Yarde wins, you have to give him all the respect in the World. I just cannot see Kovalev having a homecoming in Russia and getting beat. If there 1% of doubt,He would not even consider it ,would he?
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Sergey Kovalev vs Anthony Yarde: Champion mocks challenger claiming ‘he thinks he is a lion, but he is a cub’
Sergey Kovalev has mocked the ambitions of Britain’s Anthony Yarde ahead of their WBO light-heavyweight title fight in Chelyabinsk on Saturday night.
The unbeaten Yarde will start as a big underdog against his Russian opponent but has insisted he is intent on scoring a knockout victory.
However the hard-hitting Kovalev, who has scored 28 stoppage wins in his 37 fights, dismissed Yarde’s chances of pulling off what would rank as one of the best British boxing victories abroad.
Kovalev told a press conference: “He calls himself a lion but to me he is a cub," referencing Yarde's signature 'Lions in the camp' slogan. "I will have to get rid of all that baby fur off his skin so he will run away back home.
“He has had a lot of fights and he’s won them by KO (and) he thinks he will knock me out, but Saturday will show.”
Despite Kovalev’s barbs, Yarde maintained his relaxed demeanour throughout a tense press conference and staredown.
“This is a fight of experience and youth,” said Yarde. “Experience plays a part but how you perform on the night is what matters.”
“Where I’ve come from, I rose very quickly to be here,” he said. “I’m happy to be at this level and I’m going to make the most of it.
“I’m going to focus on myself, be the best I can be and get the knockout victory, because that’s what I feel I need to do to win the fight.”
https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/ser...150600886.html
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
The better Kov looks...... the better Ward looks. Something unique to boxing...
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Well I think Yarde has the skills to trouble Kov but who knows how the judges will score the fight even if he does well.....Yarde needs a KO so he's going to have to be aggressive and aggressive vs Kov is a tough ask but he's older, slower, and been KO'd recently so I'll say Yarde by TKO late.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Yarde's health can be at serious risk in this battle
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
I’m wondering if Kovalev will fight like he did against Alvarez in their second fight. He stayed back and used his jab because he didn’t want to get hit. He won the fight pretty easily. I think that Kovalev should be able to win pretty easy if he just boxes. He is a very underrated boxer IMO
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Kovalev is a hell of a fighter who has repeatedly taken on top shelf competition, so all kudos to his career. Just a shame his is complete trash as a human being.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Sergey Kovalev vs Anthony Yarde: The potential to shock and all the ingredients of a great fight
In a business that delivers Kung Fu clowns in comedy fights with living legends, it is still hard to think of a fight with extremes like Sergey Kovalev against Anthony Yarde on Saturday in Chelyabinsk, an industrial Russian city.
In the fantasy world of Floyd Mayweather it seems any pairing is acceptable for the right pile of cash, but in boxing’s real world fights like Kovalev and Yarde are rarities, the classic known and unknown, young and old, innocence and experience. The old man giving the kid a shot, nice.
The story line seems simple, a Rocky tale without raw eggs or love: Kovalev has won and lost savage, bloody wars in ring battles that have shaped his face and mind and made him an icon in Russia. Yarde has barely broken a sweat in four years of biffing and bashing a steady line of willing punch bags. This should not be a fight, according to ancient boxing reason.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cp...valevyarde.png
However, strange things happened on the way to the Traktor Sport Palace on the edge of the darkest and deepest green forest, on the outskirts of this sprawling concrete city. As the statistics were mentioned and dismissed, as Yarde – when faced with Kovalev on Wednesday – still insisted he would win by knockout and as Kovalev shared his pain at missing his children when isolated in endless training camps, there was a shadow of doubt creeping over the fight. Is Kovalev in the wrong place, is Yarde in the right place?
Yarde is the unbeaten, untested fighter from East London, he has dropped his 18 victims over 30 times, he refuses hard sparring with any rivals and is joined at the hip with Tunde Ajayi, his maverick coach. The pair have divided boxing opinion, their unshakable belief that their brand of preparation- called System 9 by Ajayi – will change the boxing world has been dismissed as foolish and arrogant. The rejoicing if they lose will be quite uncomfortable, but few in the old boxing game will come out now and say categorically that no sparring, lengthy sessions of repetition on the pads and no roadwork is crazy preparation for a fight against a hardened beast like Kovalev.
Yarde started to box late in life, finding the gym and leaving the streets. His bond with Ajayi was instant. Yarde calls him a “genius” and Ajayi, who had five professional fights without loss in 2001, talks about him and Yarde being the same man: “I know when I wake up just how Anthony feels – I don’t even have to see him,” Ajayi told me on Wednesday here. “We both go through it – I’m with him and he’s with me – it’s like the old karate thing: Master and pupil. He spars with me, I’m his best sparring partner. We will answer the critics. I will be validated.”
Underneath the Karate Kid references and bold claims there is an awful lot of good sense in Ajayi’s methods. The concentration needed for his repetition sessions on the pads is not new, but he has extended the conventional time from three minutes to possibly 20 or even 40 minutes; same combination, no rest, two men in one ring. The simplest way to learn any sporting art is through repetition, which enhances concentration and that is one of boxing’s oldest beliefs. The veterans of abandoned gyms will tell you about the hours spent shaping the left hook on yet another forgotten master in a time that nobody cares about any longer. Tunde is just speeding the learning process up. As I said, strange things have happened on the way to the Traktor Palace.
However, lack of hard sparring is slightly more difficult to dismiss and it raised the eyebrow of Buddy McGirt, former world champion and the man in Kovalev’s corner. “It’s hard to replace real sparring, real hard. We will see – I can tell you that Sergey did have hard sparring,” McGirt said. McGirt knows best because he belongs to a past boxing needs to change, he is a veteran of the vicious American slum gyms of the Eighties when fighters were broken in too many stupid sparring sessions that established gym kings. I have seen those men at recent fights in Las Vegas and New York, panhandling and looking through milky, damaged eyes for recognition.
“I have watched too many fighters have too many hard sparring sessions over the years,” Ajayi added. “If my method doesn’t work, then how has Anthony Yarde got better without any meaningful sparring? I will tell you why – It’s deeper than that, it’s a mind set.” It is easy to see why Ajayi upsets the purists, but difficult to understand how many smart boxing people dismiss him as a chancer; Ajayi is a real boxing man, make no mistake.
Kovalev has been the world light-heavyweight champion on and off since 2013, has fought 15 consecutive world title fights and believes he has five more left. Yarde is nearly 10 years younger, unbeaten in 18 and has few physical or mental scars from his short life in boxing. Kovalev has the wounds, make no mistake, Yarde has the innocence and on Saturday night one of the schools – either old or new – will get a beating. Yarde can deliver the shock and it would be monumental. Kovalev, under McGirt, can take fewer risks and win easily. That, my friend, is what you call the ingredients for a great fight.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...cid=spartandhp
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
I had never heard of Anthony yard till this week. Just looked at his record and recognise no one on it.
Looking forward to watching it at a reasonable fight time!
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark TKO
I had never heard of Anthony yard till this week. Just looked at his record and recognise no one on it.
Looking forward to watching it at a reasonable fight time!
Yarde is our version of Roy Jones Junior. He is a very athletic boxer.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ron Swanson
Just a shame his is complete trash as a human being.
It happens. A lot of guys feel like or maybe they just aren't able to operate at that level without being assholes.....some are so talented their personalities (or lack there of), attitudes, bad habits are overlooked and in some cases they're not happy within themselves and it causes them to react like assholes. That goes for a lot of very successful people, actors, musicians, artists, athletes, businessmen, etc.
Really does take the shine off of a person to know they suck at being a human though.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark TKO
I had never heard of Anthony yard till this week. Just looked at his record and recognise no one on it.
Looking forward to watching it at a reasonable fight time!
Yarde is our version of Roy Jones Junior. He is a very athletic boxer.
Don’t compare the two
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
I hope Yarde in particular and his team are safe. I don't like the pre-fight shenanigans from the Russian/Kovalev camp.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
What time does it start please?
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Romanov is fighting now and stops his opponent in the first round by knocking him down 3 times and the ref counting him out.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
The fight on right now is pretty good. Papin vs Makabu
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Makabu is the one who got knocked out by Bellew.
I am currently watching the football match between Liverpool v Arsenal.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Both fighters are sucking air. Really good fight going into the 10th
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
powerpuncher
Both fighters are sucking air. Really good fight going into the 10th
Can you let me know when the Yarde fight is about to start please?
Liverpool are winning 2 nil. :)
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Yarde walks in dancing and looking very confident.
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
The only way that Yarde wins is if he can chin Kovalev. I think that Kovalev will stop Yarde in 3 rounds
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
To be fair to Yarde he did look confident as fuck during his ringwalk
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
What a shit rendition of a great anthem...
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Batman
To be fair to Yarde he did look confident as fuck during his ringwalk
Him looking confident has nothing to do with my prediction
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Quote:
Originally Posted by
powerpuncher
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Batman
To be fair to Yarde he did look confident as fuck during his ringwalk
Him looking confident has nothing to do with my prediction
100% agree and I'm backing Kov as well, my post wasn't in response to you, just saying he looked confident, someone said earlier that unless Kov is 36 going on 46 then he wins easy and that is exactly what I think
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Re: Sergey Kovalev v Anthony Yarde
Evening. Yarde not quite got his distance sorted out yet. Kovalev already sussed it.