With his terrible match making? the poor guy looked clueless because of the step up in levels. Yarde showed tremendous bravery and done well to stay in, but his promoter should have matched him up with better.
Not really. He held his own for a fair part of the fight against one of the best LHWs in the world. He can come back from this and rebuild - the improvements he needs to make aren't unfixable. Boxing needs to change the perception that the '0' is everything - if it doesn't, more young fighters will have careers like Yarde has done before Saturday because they'll be terrified of taking risks.
Nah, the complete opposite. Hadn't fought a British-ranked guy until the weekend and made millions doing so.
Boxing has moved on from the idea that the 0 is all important. For all the idiots pretending a loss ends a career, history will tell you time and again it doesn't. I'm also not sure the point works in this context. It's absolutely fine to take challenging fights and put your unbeaten record on the line. That's a different thing from going from nobody to nobody to nobody to a world champion. I don't really think Yarde did hold his own to be honest. He lost all of the fight bar a couple of minutes and was saved by having a decent chin. In truth he was systematically beaten up and made to look way out of his depth.
He got a 7 figure pay day, a shot at a world title that he very nearly won, and didn't come out of the fight with any lasting damage. This is not Brook Vs GGG.
I’m not so sure - I think to a more casual audience promoters know the 0 is important. Lots of Joshua’s aura and appeal was due to being unbeaten for example. I think Yarde did pretty well - ultimately outclassed but didn’t look terrible. Had some decent moments. Depends on how you define ‘held his own’
The biggest fights in the history of boxing often feature fighters who have lost. In terms of heavyweight boxing consider the fights between Tyson, Lewis and Holyfield. An early prediction; Joshua Ruiz II will be bigger in this country than any Joshua fight bar Klitschko. If anything the loss just makes it more intriguing. As someone else said on here, Joshua became so big he doesn't suddenly drop into obscurity if he loses. The narrative just changes. As for the question this thread asks, I think Yarde was clearly badly unprepared for a fight of this magnitude. Warren's matchmaking has to be a part of that. Even if he'd won I still cannot accept that a litany of nobodies and then a sudden jump to world level is a sensible plan.
He done a great job with him. Let’s be honest, if he went down the British/European/world route he would’ve been found out and missed out on a big payday.
Regarding that last paragraph, I totally agree. I don’t want to see that culture of padding a record just to get into mandatory position sneaking into British boxing. Josh Warrington’s team showed exactly how it should be done imo. As i’ve mentioned previously, we’re rightfully up in arms on here calling out the Tom Schwarz’s and Norrad’s for having inflated padded records. It looks awful when they’re exposed when they step up several levels. Yarde was outboxed. He didn’t look terrible, but he was losing round after round. He had that 2 minutes of success in the 8th, but Kovalev wasn’t saved by the bell. Yarde was hanging over the ropes with exhaustion at the end of the 8th. I hope they employ better matchmaking with Yarde now because I think he can improve massively.
Show my another fighter who was a 11 fight amateur novice. Who in a professional career where he was learning on the job and facing guys outside the top 50. Was able to obtain the number 1 ranking with the WBO in 17 fights? Was able to fight for the world title and earn 4 million Euros doing so? Also looking at the opponent on offer, Kovalev was there for the taking in truth. Yarde didnt take a severe beating in there either or embarrass himself. Warren has performed miracles with Yarde.
He was stopped due to exhaustion not due to punch accumulation. He wasn't marked up too badly, wasn't concussed. Look at his interview moments after the fight, he is hurting more inside than out This content is protected