Artur Beterbiev heads to London to defend light heavyweight titles

Russia-born, Montreal-Canada residing Artur Beterbiev, the WBC, WBO, and IBF light heavyweight champion, will face contender Anthony Yarde on January 28th in Yarde’s hometown of London at Wembley Arena.

Beterbiev, who had 300+ fights as an amateur, and is currently undefeated as a professional at 18-0 with an astounding 100% knockout ratio, is excited to get past Yarde so he can look at unifying with WBA champion Dmitry Bivol.

Yarde, who comes in at 23-2 (22 KOs), is looking to upset Beterbiev’s plans and leave the ring a champion.

This will be Yarde’s second world title shot after coming up short against then-WBO champion Sergey Kovalev in 2019, getting stopped in the 11th round. 

While Beterbiev is the favorite going in, nobody in the Beterbiev camp is looking past Yarde, a talented fighter who has upset on his mind.

MaxBoxing recently caught up with former (2-time) world title challenger John Scully, a member of the Beterbiev training team, to get his thoughts on his charges’ upcoming fight. Scully, an outstanding world-class fighter in his time, is confident going into the bout but knows they must be ready for a motivated Yarde.

Bill Tibbs: Hey Ice, great to catch up.

John Scully: Hi Bill, happy to do it.

BT: How has camp gone with Artur? I assume he is a trainer’s dream, as he appears to be a very disciplined man out of the ring.

JS: Oh yeah. He is probably the most disciplined guy I have ever seen. You never have to tell him to run, to watch his weight, any of that. He is on top of that all the time and he is just very disciplined and focused on his job. Leads a very quiet life out of the ring with his wife and children and he trains all the time. Some guys after a

fight don’t train until the next fight is coming up, Artur, gets right back at it. He is a dream to work with in that regard, as he is so focused and disciplined.

BT: Artur is 38, not old by today’s standards. But, he isn’t young. Does this affect training? Can he still train the same?

JS: Well, just as I was saying, I think with a lot of guys who are in and out of shape, this might affect them. But, with Artur, he is in shape all the time and takes very good care of himself so he, in many ways, is fighting and boxing better now that he was earlier in his career. I have seen huge improvements from him in his mid-30s and beyond. Most guys get to a certain level and that is enough to carry them, and they just go with it, but he is looking to improve all the time. He wants to get better all the time. He never stops trying to improve.

BT: Due to injuries and other factors, Artur hasn’t been a real busy fighter. He has averaged less than 2 fights a year since he won the title in 2017. Has this hurt him?

JS: This goes back to the training. I think if you let yourself get away from training and being ready, and in shape, it would have an effect, but he is always training. Even when he had gaps where he didn’t fight for whatever reason, he was always in the gym; always working hard and staying in shape.

BT: Artur’s obvious strength is his incredible power. But, I think Artur is very underrated as a boxer mainly because people are so caught up in how strong he is. But I see a lot of subtlety in his ring movement that speaks to a high boxing IQ; very underrated boxing skills.

JS: This is so true. It is easy to get caught up in his power because he is so strong. But Marc (head trainer, Ramsay) has worked so hard with him and always has him ready in all aspects of his game; defense, movement, angles, speed, everything. They really don’t focus on the power. He knows it’s there, but they have always trained and covered all aspects of his game and always prepare to go 12 rounds.

BT: While Yarde looks very strong, one would assume he is going to try to move and give Artur angles. Yarde is no slouch in the power department with 22 KOs in 23 wins, but one has to assume he doesn’t want to get into a slugfest with a guy who has a 100% KO ratio. How do you see the fight playing out?

JS: You never know what can happen in a fight, but I don’t think anyone training to face Artur is going to try to get into a slugfest with him, so we assume he is going to be boxing, moving, giving angles. That would make the most sense fighting a powerful guy.   

BT: The obvious question is, do you see Bivol as the next opponent if Artur wins this fight?

JS: I don’t really get into the business side of things, so I don’t really know. But, I know that is the fight people want and it would seem to make the most sense. Of all the years I have worked with Artur, I have never heard him call out a specific name. He doesn’t care who he is fighting, he just wants to fight the guy who has the belt. If Bivol is the guy with a belt, that is who he will want to fight.

BT: Can I get a prediction?

JS: From what I have seen with Yarde, I think that he can be broken down mentally in a tough spot. I just don’t know if he can compete with Artur in this area who will have an advantage in his incredible mental strength. I am not a betting man but if I was, I’d say that I see Artur stopping him somewhere mid-rounds, perhaps somewhere between rounds 4 and 8.

BT: Thanks so much for the chat Ice. Best of luck in England.

JS: Thank you, appreciate it. Good talking to you.