Artur Beterbiev.v Anthony Yarde

[Spicoli]

If I was a betting man I think Yarde stands a respectable chance in the very early rounds. But it's also his only chance. Cannot see the massive atmosphere and first time there rattling Beterbiev but easy to forget he's also been clipped in the 1st round before. But if Yarde tries to dance and style with him as Beterbiev reaches his steady boiling point Yarde gets demolished down the stretch. Little simplistic but yeh.

[palmerq]

Callum Johnson had beterbiev in a lot of trouble in their fight, he could possibly of ended it if he really went for it. obviously beterbiev recovered and gave him a hiding but he's getting older, I wouldn't rule yards out completely but beterbiev is the big favourite and he's just so impressively powerful with every punch, i think yards is in for a hard time

[Master]

Excellent fight and it is not PPV unlike Eubank v Smith this week.

[Master]

And Callum Johnson, the brave Brit who lasted four thrilling rounds with the Soviet slugger in 2018, reckons his compatriot has accepted Mission Impossible and jokes Beterbiev is so dangerous he should be exiled from the hurt business.

“The man is a monster, an absolute monster,” the retired and respected 37-year-old Lincolnshire man said. “And I cannot see anybody beating him any time soon.

“When I was in there and the adrenaline was pumping I didn’t really feel like he was hurting me.

"But when I watched it back, even when he was hitting my gloves and arms, he was rocking me from side to side.

“And records don’t usually lie, when he hits people they hit the canvas.”

Grinning through his painful memories, he added: “I think he should be banned!”

But he revealed the spiteful way he was first floored - after he dropped his guard following a call from the referee - is another example of Beterbiev’s scary arsenal.

“Artur Beterbiev is a dog, he is an animal,” he said with the utmost of respect.

“He will have no qualms about hitting Anthony Yarde on the back of the head.

“You need to be sharp all the time, you need to be careful all the time, you cannot let your guard down for one second, because he will take advantage of it.

“But, to have any chance of beating him, you have to be able to beat him at his own game.

"Rough him up, push him back, hit him hard, make him feel uncomfortable.

“If you try to outbox on the backfoot then he is comfortable, because that is all he has ever been used to his opponents doing.

“Someone hitting him hard and pushing him back will be unfamiliar to him and that’s the only way to beat him, in my opinion.”

“Anthony Yarde can punch, so he has a puncher’s chance,” Johnson said.

“Yarde might have faster single shots and hand speed but Beterbiev’s timing, ring craft and boxing brain could nullify the little advantages Yarde has.

“He can box, he has a good defence, he is a very good fighter because he has a little bit of everything.

“But personally I don’t think he has anything that Beterbiev has never seen before or cannot deal with.

“Beterbiev is now 38, though, and he will have to age at some point.

“For Yarde to win I think we will need to see Yarde at the best he has ever been and Beterbiev on the slide.

“But in Beterbieve’s last win over Joe Smith Jr he looked as young and good as ever.

"He looked as cold and calculated as ever and got arguably his best win and performance as a professional.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21144...fight-johnson/

[TIC]

if joe smith jr couldn't put a dent in artur i fail to see how anthony does

[Master]

When Anthony Yarde was 19, he told everyone he was going to fight for a world title.

Even his closest friends were baffled; at that point he'd never fought - as either an amateur or professional.

'All right, watch'," he remembers replying.

Yarde had learned to back himself from a young age. His mother was his greatest ally, his "teacher and provider" and let him experience everything east London had to offer. Good or bad, mistakes were his to make.

"Belief is one of the key things in any form of success," he says. "You have to believe you can do something and if you don't, you have to search for it."

Yarde's search led him to the boxing ring.

He sits a few feet away from one as we speak. His gym in Ilford is plastered with some of the most famous faces in boxing - including Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather. It is not far from where he grew up, on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford.

'Lions in the camp' - Yarde's mantra - is displayed in gold above the ring.

Yarde is 31 now, and preparing for the biggest fight of his life. Unified light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev travels to London on Saturday to defend his three world titles, unbeaten record and formidable reputation.

The home fighter is a massive underdog but has spent his life upsetting the odds. He left fear behind decades ago.

"If fear is stopping me from following something, who am I?" he asks.

"I've been faced with certain situations, had knives pulled out on me, had guns pulled out on me. That's fear. That's something to be scared about."

Yarde grew up with his two sisters and mother; his father was mostly out of the picture by the time Yarde was seven. They lived in one of the estate's main blocks - Dennison Point.

He was friends with everyone - "kind like his mum", as he puts it. But his community - while tight-knit and caring - was chaos. His friends were being stabbed, sent to prison and even killed.

"Somewhere within me was a bad temper; my environment brought that out," he says.

"You start to rely on that because that is your defence mechanism."

Yarde first went to the boxing gym at 14. His mum was against it. But Yarde wanted to learn to protect himself.

His temper was getting him in and out of trouble.

He was never in a gang or a "troublemaker" but his life unravelled when his promising football career derailed after he missed out on a place at Queens Park Rangers because of injury.

Yarde went down the "wrong path" - and his mum told him the life he was leading would end in one of two outcomes - prison or death. Aged 19, he listened.

"Good people know when they're doing something wrong," he says. "It's an intuition.

"I was trying. I wasn't a person who didn't try.

"When things started going wrong, I had to recall when things were going good. I wasn't even giving 100% to football and things blossomed.

"So I said I'd do boxing, but this time I'd give it 100%."

Yarde turned pro after 12 amateur and three unlicensed fights. His coach, Tunde Ajayi, convinced veteran promoter Frank Warren to take a chance on a 23-year-old making a name for himself.

He had just won the Haringey Box Cup - a prestigious amateur tournament - by knocking everyone out.

"When there's a knockout artist, everyone runs back to their seats," he says.

"So I said: 'I'm going to be a knockout artist.'"

Yarde was an instant hit - surging to 18-0 with 17 knockouts. Then, in 2019, he got the chance to fight WBO light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev - his first world title bout - in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The dream became a nightmare. His bags were lost, he was advised not to drink the water provided for fear of sabotage, and he had an armed escort everywhere he went.

He lost the fight - his fitness levels found wanting as he tried to keep pace with the champion. But he has "zero regrets" about taking the fight.

"They say you don't know what you're made of until you experience loss," he says.

"I would rather have these opportunities than not. That's my personality.

"There's nothing worse than regret. That hurts more."

Yarde returned home nursing the wounds of his first defeat.

But his rebuild was halted by the Coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Then, in the space of seven months, he lost his father, grandparents and aunt.

He chose to fight twice at the end of 2020, losing the second - a big domestic encounter with Lyndon Arthur.

"You can prepare for a fight but you can't prepare for emotion or for grief," he says.

Yarde remembers before the fight he spent all his energy putting on a brave face. He would hide his tears when he looked at his mum and baby niece.

One day he took the bus to visit a friend.

"I had all my jewellery on and I knew all the dangers but I didn't care," he says.

"Some boys approached me and in my mind it was a relief. 'Come on then!' You know what these boys are like, they'll stab you, but I wanted that.

"I know it sounds crazy but I just charged towards them. Luckily they ran away.

"When I looked back, that could have easily gone another way. I was inviting danger. I wasn't accepting the reality of what had happened.

"I didn't like the feeling of being present."

Like so often in his life, his mum intervened.

"Let's go through this together," she told him.

He went to Mexico with his family and close friends and stayed away from boxing while he grieved properly for the first time.

"Slowly but surely I started to go back to being myself," he says. Twelve months after he was beaten by Arthur on points, he dismantled the same opponent in four rounds.

Soon after, Beterbiev came calling.

The 38-year-old is the only reigning boxing world champion with a 100% knockout ratio.

He stopped fellow champion Joe Smith in two rounds to add the WBO title to his IBF and WBC belts last June.

No-one has figured out the blueprint to beat Beterbiev as a professional - and the Russian only lost five times in 300 amateur fights.

Yarde, though, isn't concerned. His confidence in himself remains as strong as when he was teenager, telling his friends he would be world champion one day.

"I know I'm going to surprise Beterbiev," he says. "There's a difference between thinking and knowing.

"Fireworks, explosion and pure entertainment, for however long it lasts."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/64403592

[Master]

[Ron Swanson]

if joe smith jr couldn't put a dent in artur i fail to see how anthony does

The because Z can’t Y can’t thing doesn’t work. Before Mayweather/Hatton we heard endlessly that Floyd couldn’t hurt him if Tszyu couldn’t.

Basically it’s if Beterbiev gets old or not because Yarde just isn’t very good.

[TIC]

if joe smith jr couldn't put a dent in artur i fail to see how anthony does

The because Z can’t Y can’t thing doesn’t work. Before Mayweather/Hatton we heard endlessly that Floyd couldn’t hurt him if Tszyu couldn’t.

Basically it’s if Beterbiev gets old or not because Yarde just isn’t very good.

artur's been put down by lesser punchers in the past. i'm not saying anthony can't land something big, i just fail to see how he does. i see joe as a bigger puncher & better fighter than anthony. i agree that anthiny isn't very good, even against a shot sergey apart from a few moments he was getting outclassed

[Beanz]

if joe smith jr couldn't put a dent in artur i fail to see how anthony does

The because Z can’t Y can’t thing doesn’t work. Before Mayweather/Hatton we heard endlessly that Floyd couldn’t hurt him if Tszyu couldn’t.

Basically it’s if Beterbiev gets old or not because Yarde just isn’t very good.

So are you saying if Yarde manages to win he still gets no credit from you? 😁

[Denilson3.0]

Yarde's only chance is to go in there and "HULK SMASH" Beterbiev



If he goes in there and tries to back foot shoulder roll, well Beterbiev has better footwork than he gets credit for and he comes on stronger as the fight goes on.

You have to give Tunde Ajayi credit for having the balls to put Yarde in against Beterbiev. No way Hearn would do the same with Butasi.

I like Yarde. He's been through a lotta sh*t in the past few years but there no sentiment in boxing and I'll be surprised if he makes it to the 3rd round and that's the better option rather than a long sustained beating. I dunno man I have a bad feeling about this fight. Beterbiev is a fking animal. I hope Yarde comes out the ring safe.

People talk about Beterbiev's age but they did 2019, 20. 21, 22 and yet here he is at 38 years old with only 18 fights and still has good tread on his tires. That's the key factor here though is Artur only has 18 pro fights….sum1 like GGG has 45. Beterbiev is much fresher, that's 27 less training camps Beterbiev had to do compared to GGG

I’ve always really respected the “road warrior” type fighters like Beterbiev. Last time he went to the USA and fought Joe Smith in his hometown stadium, humiliating him in front of his woman, his family, and his friends.

Few fights b4 that Beterbiev he unified by beating the very good Oleksandr Gvozdyk (many believe was better than prime Sergei Kovalev) who ended up in hospital and has never fought again.

Artur Beterbiev is boxing’s hardest puncher. It’s not Wilder, it’s not GGG, it’s not anyone else. It’s Artur Beterbiev and I don’t think anyone will be able to beat him from this generation of boxers.

[TIC]

this fight seems to have been poorly promoted. i'm surprised it hasn't sold out

[Master]

this fight seems to have been poorly promoted. i'm surprised it hasn't sold out

The fight has sold out.

[Master]

Beterbiev said of the prospect of fighting Canelo: "I really wanted to fight Canelo when he was the champion in the division.

"That time I really wanted to fight him because he had another belt in my division.

"It’s more motivation for me to get the belt than the Canelo name.

"I’m more focused for the titles and belts than on the big-name fighters just because they have a name."

And the Russian says he can't wait to fight in front of a British crowd.

He commented: "I am very happy that I will a fight before the English public.

"England is known as the place where bare-knuckle boxing resurfaced more than 500 years ago.

"I hope I will gain more fans in England after this fight. So I am very happy I will fight in the birthplace of modern-day boxing."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21171...o-fight-bivol/

[TIC]

this fight seems to have been poorly promoted. i'm surprised it hasn't sold out

The fight has sold out.

that's great to hear, when i posted yesterday there were still tickets available