This wasn't a toe to toe war. This wasn't a tit for tat slugfest where both fighters were badly hurt. This was Beterbiev doing what he always does; grinding down his opponents with sustained pressure, combination punching, and a body attack. Yarde landed two eye catching shots - a right hand, and an uppercut. That's about it for noteworthy work. Certainly, he did better than some expected (not me, I thought he'd last as long as he did), but he didn't do anything to put Beterbiev off and take him out of cruise control. The reality of this fight is that if it were a 400m sprint, Yarde pretended it was a 250m sprint, emptied the tank, and still couldn't beat Beterbiev to the 250m mark. There were almost FIVE rounds to go against the best pressure fighter in the sport who only throws more in the second half of a fight. If Yarde didn't get bludgeoned by an overhand right, he would've been knocked down by a soft jab in a round or two. He was completely finished physically and mentally and had taken heavy body shots. He employed a losing strategy of trying to box with a better boxer and catch him with a single huge shot. He had to go to war from round 1 like Joe Smith Jr. and gamble it all, but wasn't willing to do that. If your best chance of winning is blitzing someone and you don't do that, don't go on about how "ambitious" you are in an interview. Folks are acting like the put up such a good fight against a monster in Beterbiev that he's now a clear #3 in the division. He just went through the wood chipper and needs a big win to prove he's even in the top 5. Yarde will never be champion. Also, does it just go without saying now that a UK fighter with a big sponsor (adidas or underamor) gets 2-3 "tactical" mouthguard spit outs per fight? And if they get knocked down they can stand in the corner for an extra 5 seconds after the 10 count? Not even going to mention the 5-2 scorecard.
Yes, it does. If you are just figuring this out you haven't been paying attention. Yarde did very well, even hurting Beterbiev a few times. I look forward to seeing how he comes back from this.
Don't think it's being overplayed at all. He shocked me with his performance, I expected to Beterbiev to batter him from pillar to post, which he did, but Yarde put up a much better fight than most expected, he hung in there despite the fact it was pretty clear Beterbiev would get to him eventually. The way Beterbiev would just murder him when inside and Yarde literally could do nothing but take it and that was the impressive thing he did take it when so many others have just folded and not only would he take it but he'd then try to fight back as best he could. I'd pretty much written off Yarde after the Kovalev loss when he just looked clueless. But he's actually improved, question is was this just one inspired performance when he had nothing to lose but to put it all out there or can he actually stay at this level?
Beterbiev’s coach summed it up when he said that boxing is a marathon and not a sprint. He said they knew Yarde would badly tire and that is when the fight would be won. At the highest level: Yarde can’t do 12 rounds. He has two valiant losses on his record at world level and Arthur is his best win at domestic/European level. That is the bottom line here.
How wasn’t it a toe to toe? Both guys took big shots, got hurt, and cut. Beterbiev actually had to take a step back and regroup himself. Yarde’s stock only went up from that fight and nothing is overhyped about that. The difference mainly is his chin and stamina which is unfortunately two things he really can’t improve on.
I think him hurting Beterbiev and being ahead on points is being overplayed. At no point was Beterbiev hurt in the fight. Did he eat some big shots which he felt and which made him back off and reset at times? Sure but he wasn't hurt. The game plan from team Beterbiev was to start off slow and go through the gears and take a tiring and beaten Yarde out of there in the second half of the fight. If they'd let it continue it would've got real ugly for Yarde real fast, if he somehow managed to make it out of that round that is. Beterbiev had been given the instruction by his corner to step it up and the last thing you want or need when you're tired and bloody and beaten is a rampaging Beterbiev all over you and Yarde was becoming easier to hit and Beterbiev was getting into a groove. But Yarde still fought really well and displayed skill, courage and heart in abundance and he deserves credit for that.
Well I had zero expectations for Yarde, I thought he was going to get thumped in a few rounds. Yarde wasn't winning, but he also held his own and even won 2-3 rounds. Eventually Beterbiev broke through but I applaud Yarde for making the most of his chance.
I agree on one hand and disagree on the other. On one hand, yes a lot of the success Yarde was appearing to have was the fact that he was pressing Beterbiev backwards, which I don't think many expected. But when I had a better view the second time I watched it, I felt a lot of (not all) ABs backward movement was actually offensive minded, not defensive. He was trying to give himself space to land punches, imo. I do disagree that he was finished mentally or physically before the final shot landed. And when I rewatched it, I felt that even more so. I was actually surprised that he wasn't more ground down entering the 8th. And that's one of the reasons ABs stock lost just a bit for me, as I'd have expected Yarde to have wilted more than he had by then. I also applaud Yarde giving his best go of it. You seem to criticize him for not going to war with AB, but in all reality, sometimes going to war in a fight where you're bringing the smaller guns is the losing strategy, and also something fighters with a losing mentality, who don't believe they can actually win, do. Yarde had youth on his side, athleticism and the speed advantage, while there were questions marks over what effects ABs age would have as the fight wore on. So considering all of that, I dont think it was a bad strategy really. Certainly worked out a lot better for him than Joe's gameplan.
Yarde was battered and chopped down and lost all the rounds, in my opinion. However, the British audience, pundits and gurus can't accept that a Russian fighter beat Yarde, they praise Yarde even though he was obliterated by Beterbiev. They don't even mention Beterbiev's victory, they're praising Yarde, saying things like "Yarde showed heart, he went toe to toe, he gave Beterbiev's toughest battle" etc, but none of these are true. Beterbiev beat him black and blue all rounds and knocked him out viciously.
All depends on the gap between what you thought might happen and how the fight actually played out. It's possible to praise Yarde's performance and also agree he was beaten up and broken down if, prior to the fight, you expected it to play out that way but more quickly and with less resistance. At least he tried to take the fight to Beterbiev. At least after getting hurt he didn't go into his shell. And he didn't aim for a cautious attempt to be the first opponent to hear the final bell. He tried to win a fight against a much better skilled, stronger, more powerful high class wrecking ball of a boxer with elite cardio. That alone means he deserves a bunch of credit. He lost a fight he could never win in the most credible way possible and gets props from me for that...
