Can Yarde Become World Light Heavyweight Champion?
by Steve Ashfield | by Steve Ashfield
Second Time Lucky for Yarde?
For the second time in four years, Britain's Anthony Yarde bids to become the world light heavyweight champion. He challenges Artur Beterbiev for his IBF, WBC and WBO titles. His first world title challenge saw Yarde beaten in the 11th round by Sergey Kovalev. That was overseas and this time Yarde attempts to become a world champion on January 28 at Wembley Arena in London, England.
The loss to Kovalev was the first of Yarde's professional career. He returned to the ring with two inside-the-distance wins and then in December 2020 faced Lyndon Arhur for the commonwealth and WBO inter-continental light heavyweight titles. Yarde lost a split decision with some crazy voting by the judges. One gave it to Yarde by six points, the other two judged his opponent the winner by a single point.
The pair met again a year later and this time Yarde wasn't going to leave it to the judges and knocked Arthur out in the fourth round. He's had one fight since then, a third round win over Stefani Koykov last December. Now he steps up in class to face the unbeaten Beterbiev but if he can win and claim the three world title belts, then his career will be forever changed. After the excitement of the Eubank Jr v Smith fight, more great boxing is likely this weekend.
What's the Final Bell?
This will be the 19th fight in the professional boxing career of Artur Beterbiev. The holder of three of the world light heavyweight belts has won all 18 of his pro fights and all have been won inside the distance. Judges don't really have a great deal to do when he's in the ring.
The 38-year-old Canadian turned professional ten years ago and it wasn't until his ninth fight that one of his fights went past the fourth round. In that time, Beterbiev had won three titles, most notably the North American Boxing Federation light heavyweight title.
His run of inside-the-distance wins nearly ended in November 2017. He took on Enrico Koelling in a bout for the vacant IBF title and he went into the final round. With just 27 seconds of the 12th round remaining, Beterbiev finished his opponent off to become a world champion.
The WBC version of the title was won in 2019 and in June of last year, he beat Joe Smith Jr in two rounds to also become WBO champion. Now he's on his way to England and this title defence against Anthony Yarde. With 18 straight knockouts, it's hard to see him failing to return home without his titles.
It might not be an early finish though. Mind you, with the punching power that Beterbiev has that cannot be ruled out. Three of his last four fights have gone to at least the ninth round and Yarde has only once been stopped in his career. Always good facts to discover when planning to bet on boxing.
Will Beterbiev be worried about this fight being in London? It's unlikely as his three titles were all won in the USA, rather than in Canada. With his punching power, why should he be scared where a fight takes place?
The Next Target
Artur Beterbiev holds three of the world light heavyweight titles but is yet to become WBA champion. To unify the division, he needs to beat Dimitrov Bivol who is also unbeaten as a professional.
Whoever wins this title fight will be clamouring for a unification title match against Bivol. Now that would be a moneyspinner and potentially one of the fights of the year. Bivol turned pro in 2014 and won the WBC Silver light heavyweight title in only his fourth fight. 2016 saw him win the interim WBA title with even more crazy judging. Two judges gave him the fight by 12 points, the other by just five.
He became the fully fledged WBA champion in 2017 beating Trent Broadhurst in the first round. Since then he's had to work a lot harder with eight fights in a row going the full 12 rounds. That included a successful defence against Saul Alvarez last May. His most recent bout was a points decision over Gilberto Ramirez two months ago and he's been upgraded to the WBA Super world light heavyweight champion.
There's continual talk of a return match with Alvarez this year but what we really want to see is the light heavyweight division unified. A match between the winner of this Saturday's title bout and Bivol would be a mouthwatering one, but will it be Beterbiev or Yarde who begins the campaign for a title fight. It's going to be an interesting weekend for sure.
