Anthony Yarde has a few losses attached to his record, but he can appreciate the lessons he learned after each of his downfalls.
Against Sergey Kovalev in 2019, Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) learned to pace himself. During his setback against
Lyndon Arthur, he learned to take everyone seriously. Against
Artur Beterbiev, Yarde didn’t learn anything in the ring. Instead, he realized that he's good enough to tussle with anyone.
On that cold night on Jan. 28, 2023, Yarde left it all in the ring. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough as he would lose via eighth-round stoppage. Beterbiev, the light heavyweight division’s former undisputed champion and current No. 1 ranked 175-pounder, has fought the best of the best such as
Dmitry Bivol,
Callum Smith and
Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Yet, despite sharing the ring with countless champions and at least one future Hall of Famer, Yarde believes no one gave the Russian monster hell like he did.
“I had my moments in the fight where he was getting pushed back. I cut him. I gave him his hardest fight,” Yarde told Sky Sports Boxing.
The lessons he learned, he hopes, will be enough to push him over the edge on Nov. 22.
The Ring will be the leading host as Yarde and
David Benavidez meet in the
main event at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Yarde, 33, believes his third time fighting for a world title will be the charm. Most in boxing circles, however, don’t believe he will get it done.
The Ring’s No. 4 light heavy doesn’t spend most, if any, of his time looking at what blogs have to say. As long as he believes in himself and the work he’s put in, that’s all that matters.
“I’m not in the business of caring what anybody says, if I’m the underdog. I don’t care about that.”