Now you don’t barge into fighting a person who has knocked out all the opponents he faced, pretending it to be a bar fight! It is precisely the thought process that thirty-one-year-old Anthony Yarde may want to avoid. Come 28th January and London-based Light-Heavyweight challenger mandated by WBO will meet the Russian – Canadian Artur Beterbiev at Wembley. The Commonwealth and WBO Inter-Continental Light Heavyweight titlist is leaving no stone unturned in preparation for his career fight. So much so that he wasted no time reaching out to an expert pugilist to catch a few red lights, he might want to avoid while facing a boxer of Beterbiev’s caliber.

Anthony Yarde meets Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Anthony Yarde has held the Commonwealth title in the Light Heavyweight division since 2021. His professional boxing record reads twenty-three wins against two losses. Twenty-Two of his victories were knockouts, lending him a knock-out-to-win rate of 79%. But for all intents and purposes, he will not face some random boxer sharing a similar, if not better, record.

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Yarde fought Bulgarian-German Stefani Koykov on 19th November. The Londoner halted Koykov’s campaign with a third-round knockout win. Then, setting his focus on the big match he is about to face, Yarde’s fortune smiled at him when he met Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur stadium.

When did Oleksandr Usyk beat Artur Beterbiev?

The Englishman, well versed in his trade, knows a bit or two about the Ukrainian’s history with Beterbiev. In 2011, during the World Boxing Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan, then a twenty-six-year-old amateur, Beterbiev, lost the quarter-final bout to Usyk. The duo met a year later at the London Olympics. Unfortunately, the outcome didn’t change, with the Ukrainian handing over a second consecutive defeat to Beterbiev.

While he hasn’t divulged the precise details of their conversation, Yarde said, “He’s just telling me some things. “Remember, he fought Beterbiev twice [sic]. He was just telling me some things. Just a little advice, some things.”…Being a student and trying to learn…”

Artur Beterbiev, the unified Light-Heavyweight champion of the world, is renowned across the globe for his freakish punches. So no wonder a match has yet to reach a decision; out of the eighteen professional bouts, he fought. Beterbiev and Yarde could have had their face-off by this year itself. However, a knee surgery that the Russian-Canadian had to go through post-Joe Smith fight led to a postponement.

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