Anthony Yarde

I think the shock of how pleasantly surprised many of us were with his showing against Kovalev will never be forgotten.

I remember when this fight was announced.... Myself and I'm sure many others couldn't believe it. Yet Yarde was a a clean punch or 2 away from nearly pulling off the unthinkable.

 

Does anyone know what Ramirez weighed in at exactly? Because he never even weighed in above 164 in his career, while allowed to.

 

He took the fight at short notice in a Madrid nightclub, looking at the weigh in he looks the epitome of a fighter that has just got off the couch.

 

IIRC the reason behind that was some weird rule about not being able to fight for that belt again without a win (?) or something like that. Still ridiculous though, could have at least put someone of that weight class in

 

I think Yarde is probably fairly decent in truth. I think his power is legit but he'll come unstuck against competent boxers. His resume is poor, though I was encouraged when he had a couple of Euro-ish level fights. He never improved on that though.

His trainer is very annoying though

 

With a better match making he would have beat Kovalv.
Lads has talent, good timing and he's nice and relaxed in the ring and he can punch but his stamina and chin have always been suspect.
It's astonishing that he got a title shot of the back of who he has beat so far.
He showed in the 8th Vs Kov that he can take it to the best of the division, last time i saw him he looked a little slimmed down and that would be a positive. If he learns from the Kov defeat he has something to work with for sure but at the moment hes unfilled potential.

 

I've never known a boxer get props after losing every round apart from one and getting knocked out by a jab. He had ONE good round. His OVERALL performance that night was poor, he just showed heart that was it really, he was out of his depth and got schooled and knocked out by a well past his best Kovalev.

 

True, but almost every serious boxingfan expected him to get schooled by Kovalev. He did better as expected and the stupid "empty the tank" advise almost actually worked for him.
Was it because Kova was on his last legs? Probably, but still better than expected.

 

There were quite a lot of people who thought he was going to win to be fair, he wasn't that big of an underdog about 2/1 on the night.

 

I had him down to take a brutal beating but was impressed with the way he handled it. It should not be understated he went to Russia for this, not Moscow but some far flung state in the middle of nowhere. There luggage went missing on arrival and the hotel was in the middle of nowhere with no facilities, it's not the kind of place you can go and scout out for the weekend beforehand and arrange everything there are visa's, work permits and all sorts of hurdles to jump through. As far as I'm aware it was just Yarde and Tunde who turned up a week before neither of them speaking Russian and with very little help from the promoters, turning up on the night against a very partisan Russian crowd. Pretty sure Frank and the rest of his team flew in on fight night (?). There is a V-log somewhere on YouTube that documents some of this. Some fighters refuse to travel full stop and most would have waited for an easier opportunity but they went with no fear and tried to get the job done, all under very difficult circumstances.

 

Yes it's a ridiculous rule tbh. Liam Smith had to do the same thing in Spain prior to boxing Liam Williams for the interim WBO title because he had been beaten by Canelo the fight before. But you can understand that there's too much at stake for the promoter to risk him with a competent opponent before a big fight. It's a rule that just endangers crap boxers and needs scrapping.

Very good post. I was aware of this from watching the videos on YouTube but many people won't be. People underestimate just how out of his comfort zone Yarde was in this fight against a world class fighter - let it be recognised that Kovalev, whilst declined, was still absolutely world class and had put on a clinic against Alvarez in the fight before.

It's similar to Hughie Fury going out to a very hostile arena in Sofia to box Kubrat Pulev. I have immense respect for fighters who go out to their opponent's backyards with limited support from a wider team and then give it all in the ring. For me that's fighting and the Warrior's Code at it's purest. Other recent examples include Eubank destroying Yildirim in Stuttgart surrounded by mental Turks and Frankie Gavin putting on a brave performance against Lejarraga in front of Bilbao ultras.

People overlook that aspect of Yarde v Kovalev and it infuriates me as a boxing fan. Yes one could counter that it's his job as a boxer and he was well paid for the fight but as you said, it would have been easy for Tunde and Yarde to make an excuse and avoid the fight. When Hughie fought Pulev in Bulgaria he was taking the place of Whyte who outright refused to travel to Sofia.