Not gonna lie I’m tempted to lump on Kovalev. I’m backing Yarde and I have a hunch he can win but I can accept Yarde is an underdog here and only one fighter is proven on the world stage! Anyone who genuinely believes with all their heart and knowledge that Yarde has no chance should be lumping on Kovalev big time here.
Thanks mate. I think Tunde’s ego is out of control. It’s infectious and easy to see how a young fighter would buy into it, but listening to him he just sounds absolute bonkers. Spending years writing ‘System9’ and then using that to teach Yarde. What bothers me is that he 100% believes in his way & methods...that includes only sparring Tunde who arrogantly proclaims that it’s the best possible sparring for Yarde. So he’s protected in sparring, he’s also protected in fights as he’s physically outmatched all his opponents, none of whom have been remotely punchers. So when he gets chinned on Saturday, he will never have felt power, speed and timing like it. I think he’s going to reflect to himself on that plane home whether he was properly prepared for that fight or not. Absolutely nothing against Yarde. Hope he wins & i’ll cheer him on but this is like throwing Felix Cash in with Golovkin imo.
Lets see, I am hoping it will be interesting and exciting match up. We haven’t had enough decent fights this year involving British boxers. I can only think of Fowler / Fitzgerald. Cash v GGG on sky ppv right?? Hearn would be all over that
One thing you should never do in boxing is lump a big sum on a fighter no matter the odds. It's a fight at the end of the day and only takes one shot.
I just can't get my head around the no sparring. Are there any top fighters who didn't spar? I'm struggling to think of any. When you consider he has only fought low level opposition how on earth can they tell how good he is just from pad and bag work?
I genuinely heard Tunde say in an interview, I think it was on the Costello & Bunce podcast, that Tunde knows how well Yarde is progressing by how far he is into book ‘system9’ with his training. Whilst both Costello & Bunce both said that the repetition part of the training is good, they said the idea of no sparring is just nuts. I’ll say it again, padding out a record by smashing more bums than Barrymore until you get into a mandatory is nothing new. We’ve seen it so many times over the years. We all slated Hughie Fury’s opponent, ‘Norrad’. They was selling him as 17-0-0 but we all knew he’d fought absolute nobodies at heavyweight and cruiserweight. Although Norrad would have at least sparred. Repetition of combinations is great, but you have to get yourself into the geography (Teddy Atlas reference) of a fight where you can do your effective work. Sparring different styles teaches that.
It does feel like madness and I am old fashioned but I do try to keep at least a small part of my mind open. On the plus side he has fought different styles and sizes with all those bums. It's been a bum-fest-bonanza. Like another poster said above though, imagine if he pulls it off? Tunde is going to hit the overdrive switch and Youtube will be swallowed up.