I think he's a great prospect despite poor opponent choices, but that's exactly what he is - a prospect. Frank made a mistake going his favourite WBO route and it's going to most likely ruin his future cash cow. Yarde needs to swerve this fight and fight at least a British level fighter. To the people trying to throw him to the wolves - you do realise we haven't got this continuous conveyor belt of British talent...
Agreed. If he steps up and takes it I’ll be the first to commend him. Even if he loses there’s no shame in losing to a world class operator like Kovalev. I just don’t think he’s ready though, the poor level of opposition says a lot. I just wonder if this is BT pushing this as they need to fulfill their PPV quotas for the year? Or would this be on normal BT?
This is a timing fight isn't? Kovalev isn't the iron chinned banger he was. He's looked vulnerable, beatable and was KO'd by Alvarez in the first fight and there was no controversy there. Has his punch resistance gone? Can Yarde implement a game plan to pick Kov off. Who knows? I'm not even sure if Yarde's camp know. he's good decent hand speed, looks powerful but what happens in the first fight of his carrer where the other guy is also a big puncher and in all honesty and more proven hitter. What is Yarde hiding... Hatton was protected for a long time but at least there was some faded names on his list of wins and some legit tuff fighters who while not world class at least made a fist of it - people Mcgee and Thaxton. Yarde either can't fight past 6 rounds or his chin is china. They are hoping they have timed this correctly and Kov is on the way out but to bounce back from a KO and then win on points against a solid fighter like Alvarez makes me think he still has enough for the likes of Yarde.
Kov looked back on track in the Alvarez rematch, and i doubt that was his last great performance. Kov will demolish Yarde within 5. There is levels to this game, and Kov is the elite.
Yeah I can't see Yarde dealing with Kovs jab if uses it like he did in Alvarez 2 and there was plenty of volume with shots following it up. Yarde has a nice relaxed style but once he starts getting hit regularly I can the obvious holes in his defense getting bigger.
Never been forced to adjust his pace & rhythm, never had to adjust, the biggest stoppage ratio an opponent of his has is 57% and that was Baranyi. He’s never been through a battle of attrition, he’s effectively been a weight bully against a bunch of journeyman, super middles & average joes. Kovalev will chin this lad for fun without getting out of 1st gear. Yarde doesn’t have a big work rate and has never been beyond 21 minutes in a fight. We don’t even know if he can do 12 rounds, I assume that’s why he really paces himself because he doesn’t know himself. I was chuckling when that boxing kingdom account on twitter questioned Kovalev’s conditioning. Yet we don’t know what Yarde’s conditioning is like, especially when he’s getting hit hard, by one of the relatively biggest punchers in boxing. I sound like I hate Yarde. I genuinely don’t. His team irritate me. They’ve set him up for being massively underprepared against a world class fighter.
It will be like winning the Scottish league 24 times in a row then expect to beat Barcelona in Champions League! If he does it fair play but I think they’ve done this all wrong! Gym fighting is different to the real thing and he may well be getting a shock he never expected.
I watched his fight against Reeves last week. He shipped a fair few right hands. The thing about fighting all these lower tier fighters is it's hard to know if Yarde takes these silly shots because he isn't worried about the opponent, or if it's a momentary lack of concentration or a defensive weakness. But here's the thing, if it's Kovalev throwing those right hands Yarde is getting splattered. He's never had to fight a perfect fight, to concentrate 3 minutes a round every round, he's probably never had to in sparring neither. Now he's going to get in the ring with a seasoned elite level talent and stand any chance of winning? Behave yourself.
I doubt it's because he's not worried about his opponents power that he's shipping shots. That might be the case if it was a constant pressure fighter but he isn't. I think it's just a defensive frailty to be honest, if he's shipping them now he will ship them against an elite fighter.
I'd take it. Even if Kovalev UD's him, there's no shame in that. Maybe Yarde can land a big shot on him and make a name for himself though? If Yarde gets brutally KO'd, it doesn't look good. But this is boxing.
Yes just think Kevin Mitchell He was shipping shots to lower level fighters and many of us hoped he was just doing so because he knew he could walk through them. Then when he stepped up he was annihilated by world class opposition, showing the exact same defensive issues. It will be exactly the same with Yarde.
Judging by Yarde’s and Tunde’s social media, it’s looks like there going for it.. I’m not sure what to say really.
It seems like it's also the biggest step up in competition any Kovalev opponent had since he won the belt. Even the likes of Caparello, Sillah and Shabranskyy had all beaten and/or fought stiffer competition as Yarde has. Only way this had been smart matchmaking if the plan always was to just cash him out.
