Russian boxer Artur Beterbiev defeated Briton Anthony Yarde in a duel for the WBC, IBF and WBO light heavyweight championship belts. The fight took place on the night of January 29 at Wembley Stadium in London. In the middle of the eighth round, the Russian knocked down Yard. The Briton was able to get to his feet, but after a few seconds he missed a few more blows, after which the referee stopped the fight. At the same time, the match for the 38-year-old Russian was not a cakewalk. He was inferior to the Briton on referee cards before stopping the fight. Our boxer won all 19 fights in professional boxing, he completed each of them ahead of schedule. For Yarde, this is the third defeat in his career.
Triple Protection
This was the second defense for Beterbiev, where he defended three belts at once – WBC, WBO and IBF in light heavyweight. Yard was the mandatory challenger for the WBO title.
In 2022, the Russian had one fight – in June he defeated Joe Smith Jr. in the second round. Yard also boxed once, and not so long ago: in November, he knocked out Bulgarian Stephanie Koikov in the third segment.
Beterbiev approached the duel with the Briton in the status of not only the owner of three most prestigious belts, but also an undefeated fighter (18-0) with a 100% rating of early victories. Yard has lost twice in his career moreover, one of those to whom he lost was another Russian (Sergei Kovalev). Of Anthony’s 23 victories, only one came to a decision.
From the very beginning of the fight, Beterbiev put pressure on Yard, kept to the center of the ring and delivered good left jabs. The Briton responded with power punches, most of which hit the block. At the end of the three-minute period, Arthur managed several good combinations, culminating in blows delivered to Yard’s jaw, but he failed to drop Anthony.
In the second round, the pressure from the Russian did not decrease, but the opponent hit more often, which was reflected on Arthur’s face. At the end of the round, Beterbiev offered to kill his opponent, but he did not refuse. But the maximum that Arthur could take out of this was a three-minute win. The Russian continued to move forward – the Briton fought back, but with each round it became more and more difficult. Beterbiev, on the other hand, was clearly going for a knockout – he stubbornly ignored the body and aimed only at the head. And at the end of the segment, Arthur was close: the left hook went very tightly, but at that moment a gong sounded.
With each round, Beterbiev increased his speed. In the fourth three-minute period, from the very first seconds, he brought so many accurate and strong hits to Yard’s head that Anthony seemed about to fall. However the Briton survived under Arthur’s pressure and even responded harshly a couple of times. In the fifth round, Yard looked so tired that he spat out his mouthguard, giving himself 10-20 seconds of respite. Beterbiev, on the other hand, slowed down, began to act more carefully, but still hit exclusively on the head. At the end of the round, Yard even seized the initiative and pulled Arthur against the ropes. The Russian got angry and in the last 10 seconds made a felling, which did not affect the course of the battle.
Foggy prospects
The fight looked like a good sparring, where one boxer acts with awareness of his advantage, and the second one simply demonstrates the maximum of his abilities. Therefore, individual episodes looked quite equal. Moreover, both boxers suffered significant damage: each received a cut. In the seventh round, Beterbiev’s pressure decreased, and he conceded more often. Both boxers were no longer shy about an open fight, each saw a chance and felt the strength to knock out an opponent.
In the eighth round, the men were notably outgunned, but in the second half, Beterbiev still sent Yard to the floor with an overhand right. The Briton was eager to continue the fight, but got up after a long pause, and his cornermen refused to continue the fight. Beterbiev won one of the most, perhaps, difficult victories, even if he got it ahead of schedule again. At the same time, according to the notes of the judges, Artur lost the fight to a stop.
“Each fight is different,” Beterbiev emphasized after the fight. – If I have another fight with Yard, then I want to do better. Everyone in our weight class can hit hard, including Anthony. He is young, he has a lot of time ahead of him. Hope he has a good career. To be honest, I was ready for all his punches, that’s why I kept dealing with him and attacking further. We expected him to fight like that, so I won.
With the victory of Beterbiev congratulated the former absolute world champion Konstantin Tszyu.
“Maybe the fight didn’t turn out the way Arthur planned, because he lost some rounds,” Tszyu said in an interview with Izvestia. But in the end he still won. Did the judges give preference to Beterbiev at the time of the knockdown? He fought not in his homeland, in such conditions you need to win rounds more convincingly. And so the fight was pretty close, but throughout this time I was calm. It was felt that Arthur was about to deliver a knockout blow. The main thing is victory. And let the coaching staff be the critics.
Two-time Olympic champion Alexei Tishchenko also noted the fact that the fight took place in Yard’s homeland.
“You can be dissatisfied with some actions, how the duel developed, but the result was achieved,” the expert believes. – Once again, there is an early victory. This is a good result, the main thing that his team was striving for and preparing for. It was not easy for Arthur, he boxed with a fairly good opponent on his territory. He fought a difficult fight, but the more valuable the victory. Did the fact that the fight was in Great Britain have an effect? All athletes are of a high level and this should not be distracting, but it still leaves a certain imprint. The hall also supports the judiciary. If we recall the fight between Tszyu and Hatton, who was also on the territory of the opponent, the judge in the ring was completely on the side of the Englishman – nothing is allowed for our boxer, but everything is possible for Hatton.
This is very disturbing, knocks out of the mood, added Alexey Tishchenko. Sometimes it is difficult to rebuild and change the pattern of the battle, but Arthur still coped with all external factors, was able to win and put a confident end to the battle, the expert concluded.
Artur Beterbiev answered the question if he wants to fight another Russian boxer Dmitry Bivol. According to him, this option is more pleasant than the others. Although organizing this fight is still a super-difficult task. Beterbiev has the next challenger – Callum Smith. Bivol has a rematch with Saul Alvarez looming somewhere, Arthur has a Top Rank team that is making plans. And while Bivol is not there. The same can be said about Bivol. His promoter Eddie Hearn will try to keep the belt and plan ahead, but it’s not Arthur. This is Joshua Buatzi, possibly Richard Bolotnix.
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