Anthony Yarde is still haunted by the defeat inflicted by Lyndon Arthur in 2020, despite Yarde earning a considerably more convincing victory in their rematch.
It was in December 2020 when Yarde – struggling with the death of four relatives, including his father, in the space of six months as a consequence of the Covid pandemic – produced a one-dimensional performance before losing for the second time, via split decision to Arthur.
In their rematch a year later – and cutting a considerably more focused figure – he proceeded to stop Arthur in four rounds.
A demonstration of his progress since then is the reality that, in January 2023, he gave the then-undefeated Artur Beterbiev what then represented his toughest fight before eventually being stopped, and that in 2024 a contest between he and Joshua Buatsi was one of the most sought after in the UK.
Instead, following a contractual dispute with his former promoter Queensberry Promotions, he is seeking to rediscover a sense of momentum, and while that may be a further reflection of the reality of his profession, on Saturday at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn, Yarde is unexpectedly fighting Arthur for the third time.
Perhaps even more unexpected is the fact that it is the defeat by Arthur that he has already avenged that is troubling him. He is optimistic about resuming his career and accepting of why it has stalled – Yarde next hopes to re-sign with Frank Warren’s promotional organization – but it is not that he once threatened to beat Sergey Kovalev before suffering his first defeat that he carries around with him; it is the loss to an opponent whose only other defeat came against the great Dmitry Bivol in 2023.
“It’s everything,” Yarde, 33, told BoxingScene. “I put the second fight behind me. I got the victory in the fashion that I knew I could get the victory. The first fight still plays on my mind – it’s still on my record. I shouldn’t have been in the ring during that first fight; it was during lockdown, during Covid, and in that Covid period I lost my dad; I lost both of my grandparents and another family member. Mentally, I shouldn’t have been in the ring.
“But I had a mindset of being a professional – no one cares about personal issues. I’m a professional – if the fight gets offered to you, you take it. I learned from that experience. The biggest lesson I learned from that experience is, put yourself first; not boxing fans or entertainment purposes. When it don’t go your way, no one cares about anything other than the result. Two judges had it in his favor, one judge had it in my favor. I’m pissed about the fact that that’s on my record.
“I was happy just to have a fight again – a fight with a bit of build-up, a bit of history. Hats off to him for taking the fight. We wanted other fights, but I’m happy with this one.
“His strengths are his jab and his movement. He’s a very good boxer. He’s shown that he can compete at world level – he’s gone the distance with Bivol. So he’s a respectable opponent. I’ve shared the ring with him twice – I’m just looking forward to this next one.
“His weaknesses, I exploited one of them in the last fight. He’s susceptible to body shots – Bivol dropped him with a body shot as well. You have to get in to be able to do that – he works well behind his jab – but I’ll bring different things to the table that he can’t handle.”
There regardless exists a further frustration that Yarde cannot address when he again shares the ring with Arthur, also 33 and of England.
An outdoor fight between Yarde and Buatsi was targeted for Selhurst Park, the stadium of Premier League Crystal Palace Football Club, but was replaced by Chris Billam-Smith-Richard Riakporhe when Yarde’s dispute with Queensberry began.
Yarde believed that a fight between them would be revived at the earliest possible opportunity – he defeated Latvia’s Ralfs Vilcans in October 2024 on a promotion overseen by Boxxer, Buatsi’s promoter – and says that he and Buatsi had a gentleman’s agreement in place, but he then watched Buatsi agree to fight Callum Smith in February and proceed to record his first defeat.
A fight between Yarde and Buatsi, unquestionably, would have proved bigger than Billam-Smith-Riakporhe did in June, four months before Yarde returned against Vilcans. It unquestionably would have represented a fight between London’s two finest light heavyweights; it, also unquestionably, would have been marketed as a fight between Britain’s finest at 175lbs.
Smith, a potential future opponent for Yarde, has instead reclaimed that status, and while Yarde remains interested in fighting Buatsi, he recognizes that as a consequence of Buatsi losing, the wider appeal of a fight between them may not be quite what it was.
“We spoke personally,” he said. “We spoke on the phone. We spoke face-to-face as well. He gave me his word. After the [Willy] Hutchinson fight got announced, it was a surprise to me, so I called him and said, ‘What’s going on? Why are you telling me we’re gonna fight?’ He just explained to me it was a lot of money. ‘It’s a no brainer – it’s a fight I need to take.’ He promised he’d fight me next. ‘It’s what people want to see and it makes sense.’ ‘Alright – cool.’
“His other excuse was, I had a contractual dispute – I told him I don’t. I told him my next fight was with Boxxer, his promoter, and then he clearly had his doubts. ‘I’m on a Boxxer show – that’s gonna clear up any doubts. We’ll fight after.’ Then he went quiet, and then I hear the [Smith] fight get announced. I just threw my hands up in the air and said, ‘These guys are jokers – I’ve just got to continue my career.’
“It’s still appealing. It’d still get a lot of attention. But I’m sure he’d want to keep back in there – it’d be a good idea to get back in there. I don’t really like the terms ‘warm-up fights’ or ‘tune-up fights.’ [But] get the activity back; get a bit of buzz around him again, a convincing win – something that’s a bit exciting – build up the anticipation again and make it happen.
“It’s been very, very difficult and stressful [to be less active] – it’s been frustrating. I’ve been inactive, not waiting around, but taking someone’s word that a fight’s going to happen. It was a big fight – it still is – but it was a bigger fight in England. It’s what the fans wanted, so I was here for it. Since then, he’s taken two other options, which made no sense to me.
“The first fight, Hutchinson, made a bit of sense ‘cause he was getting paid a lot. I did think he’d beat Willy Hutchinson. But the second fight made no sense – I thought Smith would beat him, and I saw it as a very dangerous fight at this point in his career. It wasn’t like he was fighting for a world title; like he’s rejected a fight with me to fight Bivol or Beterbiev or [for] a unified title. I saw it as a very silly decision, and the result showed that. It was an entertaining fight. But it could have been me and him in there – an even more exciting fight.
“My energy’s not there anymore. My energy’s on Lyndon Arthur. It’s one fight at a time. As everyone knows, I’m very, very focused.”
Declan Warrington has been writing about boxing for the British and Irish national newspapers since 2010. He is also a long-term contributor to Boxing News, Boxing News Presents and Talksport, and formerly the boxing correspondent for the Press Association, a pundit for BoxNation and a regular contributor to Boxing Monthly, Sport and The Ring, among other publications. In 2023, he conducted the interviews and wrote the script for the audio documentary “Froch-Groves: The Definitive Story”; he is also a member of the BWAA.
