What Tunde Ajayi said to Yarde inbetween rounds

This is why experience won the day. Great move from Buddy to make sure Kovalev knew what he had to do, Kovalev knows Buddy wouldn’t have hesitated to pull him out given what happened recently.

Nothing against Tunde but Yarde needs a proper trainer, somebody with more understanding of the game and knows how to give proper advice in the corner.

 

I heard them plainly say "watch out for the Dustin Nichols Check-Jab"

 

What were the alternatives. As Jacko says here:

Yarde is barely a boxer. He's 28, but he's still raw, there's nothing Tunde could say in that corner to teach Yarde how to outbox Kovalev, he just doesn't have the skills. He should have and that's down to Tunde too, but he doesn't and based on what he and Kovalev have, maybe taking him to 8 then putting it on him was as good a plan of action as there could be. Again, they were very, very close to scoring a win that would've made him a superstar in British boxing. One of the great away performances. I

 

If Yarde had continued to work as he had in the 7th - and not emptied the tank - he may have continued to break down Kovalev. Because a 'plan' nearly lucked-out doesn't give it credibility. Yarde had found his way into the fight himself in the 7th - that had nothing to do with the man in the corner - and then Tunde's ego took over. At least one more round of educated pressure off the back of a successful 7th and then take stock.

But no, 'empty the tank' was the sage advice. In addition, once the tank was emptied - unsuccessfully - a clearly exhausted Yarde was allowed to come out for the 11th. No thought of saving his fighter for another day, and no 'advice' on how to tackle that round. I'm glad it was only a stiff jab that concluded the fight and nothing more substantial.

 

Completely agree with your second para.

On the first, I'm still not sure that there's much else that Tunde could've done with Yarde. He was taking punishment throughout, never going to win a decision, always vulnerable etc. He had relative youth and strength on his side but did he have the ability to exert educated pressure?

I guess another way of saying this would be: Is there actually any strategy that Yarde and his corner could've employed to win that fight against that opponent with Yarde's skillset?

 

Tunde has been watching too many Floyd Joy fights, basics haven’t been taught.

 

Yes. He showed that in the 7th. He recognised he was hurting Kovalev to the body and targeted it without apparently overexerting himself. It was him throwing the punches, feeling the impact on his energy doing so. He knew how tired he was and how hurt he was himself. When did his 'trainer' ever ask him how he was feeling before barking out his maniacal instruction for his fighter to use all his available energy in the 8th with no thought to how he might navigate the final four rounds should the roll of the dice fail? Yarde tried to speak when he was being told to 'stop him this round and empty the tank' and Tunde talked over him.

He had a good 7th doing what he was doing. But then it wasn't the consequence of Tunde's intervention, and that would never do for the master trainer. All the credit for a brave performance goes to Yarde and how he adapted to Kovalev during the fight and found a way to get to him. We'll never know, if left to his own instincts, how that fight would have played out.

 

Tundy sealed Yarde's fate when he told him to go out and empty the tank.

 

I disagree. Yarde wasn’t going to outbox Kovalev. The tactical advice was the timing/momentum/energy of the fight, when Yarde has to just go for it.
You can’t just give technical advice in the middle of the fight and expect anything to come from it. You’re talking about technical matters, not tactics. Unless a superior boxer isn’t using his learned tools the way he should be, it’s absolutely useless to try and tell a fighter about technique in the heat of a battle. You don’t learn anything in a fight. The directing of energy is the good coaches job in the middle of a performance.

 

Sorry, mate, but I'm going to have to disagree with you there.

What I pointed out (using the jab, not loading up, trying not to get hit by a jab) is hardly Eddie Futch level advice. It is boxing basics. Even someone with Yarde's limited experience should be able to make these adjustments, particularly the first two. Admittedly, slipping Kovalev's jab would be more difficult.

Fair enough, if a boxer fights smart for the majority of the bout, but then their technique starts to slip late on due to fatigue, then motivation and geeing up your fighter is probably better than technical advice. However, Yarde was making these simple and obvious technical mistakes from the start. Tunde should have noticed this and realised that Yarde could pay for these mistakes over the long haul.

You are right in that Yarde probably wouldn't be able to out box Kovalev over the long haul, but he would have stood a better chance if he used his jab to set up his work, and if he paced himself better. Just because you are the inferior technician does not mean you have to forgo all of the fundamentals of boxing.

As for tactical / technical advice; the two aren't mutually exclusive. If you want your fighter to 'empty the tank this round', he can windmill his opponent, or he can use educated pressure, hurt his opponent, and then go full Wilder.

 

How is a fighter going to outjab someone who has a better jab, who has more experience? You don’t negate your game by copying your opponent and doing what they do, but in an inferior manner. You have to enforce your game, and that’s what Yarde had some success at. Yarde doesn’t have the experience or the length to control range with a jab against Kovalev. He would’ve just got beaten up earlier. What Yarde was doing was a tactic, he had his success when he shortened his punches and worked the body. He had to be unorthodox and aggressive to make anything happen.

Yarde is simply never going to be using ‘educated pressure’ against someone like Kovalev at this stage of his career. He doesn’t have the education and he’s not going to gain it during the course of a fight. You don’t ever outbox the boxer, you outfight the boxer. That’s boxing 101, that’s what Yarde and his trainer attempted.

Tactics and technique are mutually exclusive. In no periodised plan do you find technique being worked on anytime close to competition. Technique modifications are learning, they take time. If you don’t have it in your arsenal you’re not going to suddenly gain it on fight night. Any coach worth anything knows that you keep it as simple as possible in the heat of battle. When you see trainers giving technical advice in a fight that’s simply because they don’t have any advice/they’re showing off for the camera, and have you ever noticed how fighters never make technical adjustments that are asked for by their corner? There’s a reason for that.
When you are in battle you need broad generalisations and management of arousal levels. Tactics are adjusting plans (e.g stay on the outside more, work the body this round etc.).
Athletes respond to analogies, how on earth would ‘emptying the tank’ ever be able to be interpreted as ‘applying educated pressure’?

The coach did a very good job, but he needed to manage the plan better after round 8. He needed to refocus Yarde and settle him down for the long haul, not keep hyping him up. I don’t think they had a plan after that didn’t come off.

 

Body, body, body Ant. Lion.

F me.

 

'OUR' families?

Should be 'YOUR' family.

The guy is living through Yarde.

 

I noticed that too