Artur Beterbiev vs. Anthony Yarde - Time is the hunter

Particulars: On Saturday, January 23, 2023, from the OVO Arena, Wembley, London, England: It’s Artur Beterbiev vs. Anthony Yarde, Light Heavyweight (three belts on the line) Championship.

Background: “Hey, stop complaining about poor fights. This is a mandatory!” Countless boxing fans yell – and some have yelled it at me.  “So what? It’s not the fight we want to see,” I yell back.

The one thing superb light-heavy and certified nice man, Artur Beterbiev, Canadian citizen via Russia, doesn’t have, is time.  He is NOT on the back nine.  He is every bit as capable and quick as 2-3 years ago. But this can go overnight.  If you’re a bus driver and age overnight, you might have a tiny fender-bender in your career.  If you’re in the hurt business, you may go from force to ‘farce,’ faster than you can say, “Lionel Messi still has it.”  So instead of THE great fight the world demands – Beterbiev vs. Bivol, we get this ‘mandatory’ mess.

Oh, and the opponent? Yarde is a natural fighter with excellent power, but not a lot of tools.

Fighters Grades: (Speed, Power, Defense, Reach, Age, Stamina, Experience)

Artur Beterbiev: B A- B+ B- C- B+ B+ Grade: B (3.0)

Anthony Yarde: B- B+ B- C- B C- B- Grade: C+ (2.5)

Reality Check: Likeable and very game Anthony Yarde (he likes to touch his heart in the middle of a round to show he’s got one – he does) has these obvious limitations:

Slow feet.

Hands too low.  (Yes, it works for elite fighters like Calzaghe and others.  It doesn’t serve Yarde well.)

Prone to dangerously low stamina in a fast-paced fight.

Appears to have lifted way too many weights for a boxer and throws mostly (not exclusively) round-house shots.

Short reach for the weight – but same for Beterbiev.

Not a tremendous chin (heart yes, chin, ‘nah’).  Kovalev, a huge puncher kayoed Yarde - not with one of his huge rights, but with a jab.

As Paulie Malignaggi has pointed out, unless you visit a gym (you needn’t glove up) or watch a lot of boxing with folks who understand the sport (excludes the entirety of ESPN+ crew except Bradley and DAZN except Mora) you don’t really know the intricacies of the sport.  Most readers of this column have played U.S. football, for example.  Punching “Randy Bevens in the lunch room in sixth grade,” doesn’t mean you know the fight game.  I mention this because Beterbiev’s command of the game is criminally underrated.

Artur is a fantastic judge of distance and has great angles.  He loves to stand a WEE bit out of his opponent’s range and at an angle so that the opponent fires fully-extended punches that miss Artur because of angles - and then Artur fires back with much shorter punches.  This is practically his mantra.  Then, when his concussive power takes hold, Artur unloads full-force, fully extended shots.  Then generally, it’s game over.  He has won every professional fight via KO/TKO.

Beterbiev has a great jab, tremendous uppercut, and various shades of right hand.  He isn’t super nimble, but moves well.  For example, Canelo has outstanding, schooled movement, but his feet are so slow, it doesn’t really help.  Beterbiev has similar polished footwork, but is quicker.  For a masterclass, review the Joe Smith fight.  While DAZN’s fools were yelling about Joe’s power he was getting completely outmaneuvered by Beterbiev.

Another incredible thing for a man of Beterbiev’s age, is adaptability.  He does start slow – until he doesn’t.  DAZN was yelling their butt off about his dangerous slow start – except he didn’t.  He started quick just to confuse Smith and that’s why Smith was annihilated in three rounds. 

Age hunts Beterbiev who joked about it when I interviewed him and continues to joke about it.  He’s a funny, honest guy.  You have to smile when a guy like Beterbiev says going to New York to fight Smith was just a business trip.  He seems to be the quintessential nice guy out of the ring – murder inside it.   My guess is nobody wants to fight him and the pretenders and their promoters will move heaven and earth to stall him until time finally does catch up with him. 

Beterbiev doesn’t seem too worried about it, which is a mistake.  He says he asks his team in camp, “am I looking older?”  He should be telling his outstanding team- “let’s try even harder to make the great fights so I can make the most money.”  It’s called prize-fighting.

No one has unlimited time. 

Fight and Prediction: Artur Beterbiev KO 8 Anthony Yarde.

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