Anthony Yarde Reflects On Artur Beterbiev Loss

Anthony Yarde has opened up on his knockout loss to Artur Beterbiev on Saturday.

Yarde was fighting Beterbiev for the Russian’s WBC, IBF, and WBO titles but he came up short as he suffered an eighth-round stoppage. In the fight, Beterbiev landed the better shots and Yarde’s corner stopped the fight, but Yarde knows he had success in the fight despite the loss.

“We both ended up with stitches,” Yarde said afterwards from behind dark sunglasses. “We were sat in the same medical room getting them done together. I have sunglasses on now because sometimes the vanity kicks in and you don’t want anyone to see these cuts and bruises.”

In the eighth-round, Artur Beterbiev was landing heavy shots right near Anthony Yarde’s corner and Yarde’s corner stopped the fight. Although some fighters would be mad to have the fight stopped by the corner, Yarde has no complaints.

“I watched clips where he dips and throws the over-hand right but he threw it and caught me,” Yarde said. “I heard the count start, I took my time, I beat the count, but my trainer and my team love me and said they were seeing something they didn’t like. All I was thinking was ‘get up, go at him again, hit him with anything’. But it was called off and I am able to speak and laugh about it now so we live to fight another day.”

With the loss, Anthony Yarde is 0-2 in title fights but is still confident he will be a world champion.

“I have a winner’s mentality so I wanted to bring home those unified three world titles but this is boxing, the hardest sport in the world. I thought I was going to do it, I thought ‘I’ve got him’. He had me in a corner and was hitting me with a lot of hard shots but I thought, if I just keep moving, I can do it,” Yarde concluded. “I was pacing myself, having learned from past experiences. But then I hit him and he hit me back! In Russia against Kovalev it was different. I have grown since then. A lot of people get push-overs for their world titles, I keep getting these monster Russians with the muscles and abs. But that’s boxing and God gives his toughest battles to his strongest warriors. I am strong in heart and mind and I have bettered my family’s life. We are better off than we were before and I will be back. I am so ambitious and don’t lie to or bulls**t myself, I am a real character. I really thought I could win.”

What did you make of Artur Beterbiev vs. Anthony Yarde?