By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBC/IBF/WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Artur Beterbiev of Russia defends his titles against Anthony Yarde in the challenger’s backyard of London England this Saturday, January 28th. The 12-round battle from Wembley Arena can be seen live in America on ESPN+ while fans in the UK can see it on BT Sport 1. Beterbiev last fought in June when he stopped Joe Smith Jr in the second round to take Smith’s WBO belt. Beterbiev has held is IBF crown since 2017 and the WBC belt since 2019. Yarde’s last ring outing came in November when he stopped Stefani Koykov in the third round.
Beterbiev won the vacant IBF title in 2017 by stopping Enrico Koelling in the 12th round and has defended it against Callum Johnson, Radivoje Kalajdzic, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Adam Deines, Marcus Browne and Smith all by way of stoppage. He also won the WBC belt when he beat Gvozdyk. The 38-year-old, who fights out of Montreal, Canada, is a former world amateur champion and Olympian who turned pro in 2013 and has boxed just 83 rounds since.
The reason for such few rounds in the bank is because he’s knocked out all of his opponents while compiling a perfect record of 18-0 with 18 Kos. This of course means his knockout ratio currently stands at 100 per cent, but he’s sometimes disappointed fans and critics by shying away from the big guns of the light heavyweight division other than Gvozdyk, Browne and Smith. However, he has three three of the light heavyweight titles to his name while fellow countryman Dmitry Bivol pwns the WBA Title.
Beterbiev’s also beaten the likes of former world champions Gabriel Campillo in 2015 and Tavoris Cloud a year earlier. Size-wise, Beterbiev isn’t the biggest light heavyweight around as he’s just under 6-feet tall with a reach of 73 inches. He obviously has fine boxing skills that were utilized during his amateur career but since turning pro he hasn’t really had the chance to use them as he’s been on a seek and destroy mission over the past few years and has been very successful at it so far.
Beterbiev also has a pretty solid chin but he’s been on the canvas before as Jeff Page Jr. dropped him in the first round in 2014. However he got up and stopped Page the next round after decking him twice. The knock against Beterbiev is that he doesn’t use his jab enough, lacks hand speed and doesn’t move his head much either, which makes him a bit of a sitting duck. But he hasn’t paid for it yet due to his tremendous power. Since turning pro, he’s also won the NABA, WBO International, WBO NABO, and IBF North American Light Heavyweight titles.
Yarde is seven years younger than Beterbiev at 31 and he climbs into the ring with a mark of 23-2 with 22 Ko’s and has boxed 90 rounds since turning pro back in 2015. He stands 6-feet tall with a 72-inch reach so is more or less the same size as Beterbiev with a negligible one-inch edge in reach. He also carries quite a bit of power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 88 per cent with 22 of his 23 wins coming by stoppage.
Yarde fought a steady diet of limited opponents until facing Sergey Kovalev in 2019 for a shot at the WBO Light Heavyweight Belt. Yarde had Kovalev in serious trouble but was eventually stopped in the 11th round for his first pro loss. Since then he dropped a 12-round split decision to Lyndon Arthur in December 2020 to lose his Commonwealth and WBO Inter-Continental Light Heavyweight Titles but stopped Arthur in the fourth round a year later to regain those belts.
Yarde has always been a power puncher as he reportedly went 11-1 with 11 Ko’s as an amateur. Since turning pro, he’s also captured the English Southern Area and and WBO European Light Heavyweight Titles and defended the WBO Inter-Continental Crown five times before losing to Arthur. He’s also beaten Walter Gabriel Sequeira, Dariusz Zek, Doc Spelman Tony Averlant, Nikola Sjekloca, Norbert Nemesapati, Richard Baranyi and Ferenc Albert. The only win Yarde has that didn’t come by stoppage came in his second pro bout when he went four rounds with Stanislavs Makarenko in 2015.
Prediction…
Combined, Beterbiev and Yarde are 41-2 with 40 Ko’s so it would be reasonable to believe this fight won’t be going the distance. Beterbiev’s not the most-skilled boxer around and it’s possible that he’s slightly overrated. But while the younger Yarde put up a good fight against Kovalev, also has power and arguably better boxing skills, he’s basically a European-level boxer at the moment. This is his chance to prove he belongs on the world stage and while he should have his moments and may even win a few rounds I’m expecting Beterbiev to eventually catch up to him and retain his titles in a pretty close fight while it lasts.
