On January 28th, Anthony Yarde will embark on what feels like an impossible task of dethroning Russia’s Artur Beterbiev, in his hometown of London at the Wembley Arena for the WBA, IBF and WBO light heavyweight titles.
Make no mistake, this is a massive fight with even bigger fight implications, and a huge task for the British fighter.
Who, despite his unwavering confidence, knows it will have to be a performance of a lifetime, and one of the best British boxing performances of all time, if he is to take these titles and become a World Champion.
I say impossible task because thus far, in his 18 fights, Beterbiev has not shown any chinks in his exceptional armour.
He has stopped all 18 of his opponents and steamrolled the competition on the way to lifting three of the four titles at light heavyweight.
I was previously looking forward to a massive unification fight, with his compatriot Dmitry Bivol, but he will have to get past Yarde before this can happen.
Where I stated previously that Beterbiev has not shown a chink in his armour, Yarde has.
In August 2019, in his first attempt at a world title, he was fighting well against Sergey Kovalev and hurt the Russian in the 8th round.
But failed to take him out, that effort caught up with him as he gassed out badly from Kovalev’s pressure.
The Russian’s experience told in the end and Yarde was stopped in the 11th round. Yarde admitted that his inexperience was the key factor in that fight, but I felt the size was also key.
This could again be significant. In the Kovalev fight, Yarde was giving away size and weight. Surprisingly, Yarde matches Beterbiev in these categories. With only an inch less in reach.
I always looked at Beterbiev as an imposing monster. But Yarde is every bit as imposing as Beterbiev, so it will come down to who can take a shot better.
There is no doubt Yarde hits hard, and when he is up for it, he can really turn on the style. However, his confidence, which has been accused of turning into arrogance, can be a gift and a curse for him. A positive and a negative if you will.
The positive to being arrogant is feeling no fear and not being intimated at the prospect of fighting this Russian monster.
A man who has dominated all before him, but despite that, he believes Beterbiev is just a man who can be toppled and beaten, like any other man with the capabilities Yarde possesses.
However, the negatives to being arrogant, is believing you will just beat him and not understanding the massive level of the task in front of you.
Not acknowledging he will have to be at his 100% best to just stand a chance. Not recognising how good this opponent is and not fully taking into account all that has come before you and fallen before this exceptional champion.
Following Yarde’s defeat to Kovalev, he went back to the drawing board, it wasn’t a bad defeat, and it filled him with confidence knowing he was good enough and belonged at the world level.
After racking up two stoppage wins, he challenged fellow Brit Lyndon Arthur for the commonwealth title. But from the first bell, I felt something did not feel right with him.
Although he did provide credible explanations, I felt, due to the opponent, he believed he could just walk through him, and as the fight progressed, he realised this wasn’t the case.
But was unable to flip the switch and turn it back on. This caused him to lose via split decision, which I felt was generous to Yarde.
However, a year later, almost exactly to the day, he avenged that defeat, and showed how brutal and good he could be when he is on it, by destroying Lyndon Arthur in four rounds.
Proving to everyone how much he wasn’t right in the first fight and the excuses wasn’t just excuses.
Since that win, Yade has had another dominating victory, but Beterbiev is a much different prospect.
As I stated, he has stopped all 18 of his opponents, and in truth, although I would love Yarde, the boy from East London like me, to do it.
I don’t think he has the style or attributes to defeat the Russian. Personally, from watching Beterbiev fights, I don’t think Yarde should match him head-on, well, not at first.
I believe a better game plan would be to fight on the outside, to begin with, and use his feet to pick him off at range.
Frustrate Beterbiev, make him miss and try to catch him with accurate, but stinging shots to get him off his rhythm and game plan. Keep him moving and thinking early. But that’s easier said than done.
Beterbiev seems a fighter who is unfazed and likes to come forward, dictate the pace and wear his opponents down. Yarde can and should use his feet for the first few rounds, but intelligently.
Try to pick off Beterbiev early to get him thinking. This could bode well for the later rounds.
But that said, to do this and still be effective later in the fight. He will need to work hard on his gas tank. I have rarely seen Beterbiev look gassed in a fight.
However, he has only gone past the 10th round once, but in that fight, still managed to stop his opponent. So, he carries power later into the fights.
Yarde seems to be more dangerous early, but I feel it could be very risky to try and take Beterbiev out early.
So he will need to pace himself, work the body, look for some weakness somewhere, and then pounce.
But it won’t be easy. By all means, it will undoubtedly be the toughest test of his career. To pull this off, many things have to work in his favour. But if he could pull it off. It will go down as one of the best-ever wins from the British boxer.
That’s how highly I rate Beterbiev, and that is how hard and how tough this task will be. But as they say. Anything is possible. Lets go Yarde!
