Just had the face off - Yarde is just shorter but there isn’t much in it. As I posted yesterday I’d say kovalev 6’ and Yarde 5’11.
Well In this case it could be important. If kovalev was much taller than Yarde then his height and reach would completely dominate him, kovalev has a great jab. It will still be a weapon but at least Yarde sizes up well to him.
I travelled over to Vegas to see the 1st ward kovalev fight, walking down the street s few days before the fight I walked into kovalev, got a picture taken with him too, and he does look abit shorter than me - I am exactly 6", in the photo he is leaning abit to the side, and I'm leaning in abit to the photo (being photogenic isnt one of my strong points lol) and maybe footwear played a part too but I do remember saying to my friend who was with me at the time that I didnt think he was 6 foot, 5'11 would see about accurate for kovalev, dont know about yarde never met him but he does look abit short too
Its not something I usually pay much attention to but in this case I felt that it could be a big factor in the fight since Kovalev excels when he is allowed to fight from range and pick an opponent off. Yarde has good inside fighting ability and throws some nice counters in short range but I feel he lacks the footspeed to effectively close the distance often enough so if he also is at a significant reach/height disadvantage that would make things even harder