I don't want Yarde to win. I want to see them taught the lesson that fighters need stepped up correctly, moving up through the levels where you earn the big fight and are prepared for when it does come. I don't want the Yarde and Tunde approach to be rewarded with a victory. Unless Kovalev's carry on out the ring with the boozing and getting into trouble with the law, has badly affected his mental state and preparation, then I just can't see how Yarde can win. How can he be anywhere near prepared to fight and beat Kovalev? You don't play boxing is the common expression, and it feels like that's what Yarde and Tunde are doing and I hope it backfires. I see a Kovalev victory as a victory for boxing and I want the Yarde and Tunde approach to be an example of what not to do for other up and coming prospects. Anyway, my prediction is a KO win for Kovalev, rounds 6-8.
Bud a lot of good posters on here fancy Kovalev between 6-8 like you do. I’m just not sure, I think Yarde is live in this fight. He’s got to put it on him though, if he freezes he is screwed.
I’ve heard it all now.....we have a British kid going over to deep, dark Russia to face one of the most fearsome fighters in the history of the Division and you and some others want him to lose as he hasn’t beaten up a Hosea Burton type..Lord give me strength. It’s ok to critic him for your perception of his lack of development, but to actually want him to lose is pretty sick IMO, considering most posters acknowledge that he’s a nice kid. Yarde / Tundes entire set up and approach is quite unique to them, so I doubt very much we are going to see a spat of young prospects take the same approach. If Yarde pulls it off, and goes on to make big money for him and his family, good on him - I wouldn’t give a monkeys how he got there, as the song goes, “get there if you can” Callum Johnson got his Beterbiev shot and all he had done in his career was beat up Buglioni..there was literally nothing else of note on his record, after a very stop and start career. Was you rooting for him to lose also? As we know Frank Warren tried to get Buglioni for Yarde when he was around 10-0 and again offered him big money later down the line when he was British Champ which he also turned down. Other British level fighters who have come on the record to confirm that they turned down offers to fight Yarde Include Ricky Summers. Ricky even admitted that he was offered big money, but didn’t take it for whatever reason. The point is, as we are also seeing with Buatsi, it is very difficult for Hearn and Warren to secure good opponents for these guys, so it’s difficult to tick the development boxes that in an ideal world we want to see. So in the case of Yarde, they went more European trial horse.....Averlant, Sjekloca, Sek. Yes, we know they are not ideal , but they have been around the Euro circuit and given the likes of Karo Murat, Arthur Abraham etc a good 12 rounds, in fact I remember reading that Sjekloca was unlucky not to get the decision off Murat.
I don’t believe it but I’m actually going to miss this fight now. I have to take a flight on Saturday night and it won’t land until 9:45. There’s a possibility I’ll be able to stream it upon landing but I need the main event to commence late. So gutted.
That’s not true though. Why do people insist on re-creating the reality of what happened? Yarde simply said he didn’t want to fight Burton and wanted to go straight in with Buglioni for the British. Slate him for that if you want but Frank Warren made a £100k, then a £150k offer to Buglioni to box Yarde. This was confirmed by Hearn who in an IFL interview called the offer a “joke”. Frank also offered to cover the purses so that Matchroom didn’t have to pay anything at all. It was a stone cold duck from Buglioni who then retired shortly after his next fight. It’s a typical Matchroom practice where they reject an offer for a particular fighter and offer someone else instead (e.g. insisting that Wilder should have fought Whyte before Joshua). Yarde v Burton would have been nice but you can’t blame Yarde for wanting to box the man who beat Burton instead. The offers Frank made were clearly good offers. There’s no way Buglioni was making much more than that in his fights with Burton and Johnson because they were undercard fights.
There’s an ifl video where burton calls out Yarde to his face in Vegas, Yarde pretty much shits himself and walks off quicker than he moves in the ring lol
They’re 4 hours ahead in Russia, Chelyabinsk so your best bet would be to catch it before the flight. I’ve read it’s starting around 7.30-8 local time so 11.30-12 over there.
And then since then, Burton has left Hearn were he had access to fight Buatsi, Richards and turned down both in separate offers from Hearn. I think that demonstrates that Burton is not serious and is all talk , no action and would have scuttled off when/if offered the Yarde fight.