Although he is adamant that he is not looking too far into the future, Anthony Yarde would be forgiven for impatiently wanting to consign Lyndon Arthur, his next opponent, to the past. 

Rivals now for five years, the meeting between Yarde and Arthur on Saturday night at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be their third, with the score currently tied at 1-1. The last time they boxed, in 2021, Yarde stopped Arthur inside four rounds, which gave the impression that the rivalry was done and suggested there was no need for a third fight. But things didn’t pan out that way, nor did Yarde progress the way he would have liked off the back of that stoppage win. Instead, despite bravely challenging Artur Beterbiev for the world light-heavyweight title in 2023, Yarde struggled to build on his momentum and secure the big fights he wanted.

Now, three years after exacting revenge on Arthur, he fights him for a third time. He knows that it is not a fight anybody was demanding, but accepts it is one he probably needs. He also knows that at the age of 33 there is no time to waste and that beating Arthur for a second time must trigger a wave of activity and some meaningful fights. 

As such, Yarde, 26-3 (24), already has a few names in mind; some old names, familiar names. Two of them, Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi, combined to produce one of the best fights of the year in February, and Yarde, an interested observer, just so happened to be in attendance. 

“The outcome didn’t surprise me,” he told BoxingScene. “I did think it was going to be a toe-to-toe fight and it ended up going exactly as I thought it would go. People forget that Smith is a former world super-middleweight champion. He’s not a build-up fight. He’s a top contender. The only two people he has lost against are Canelo [Alvarez] and Beterbiev. I feel like it was a senseless fight for Buatsi at that stage in his career. I felt like there was no real reward in it. They were fighting for Buatsi’s belts, so what was in it for him [Buatsi]?”

In the end, Buatsi lost his unbeaten record that night in Riyadh, with Smith a well-deserved winner after 12 gruelling, nip-and-tuck rounds. As for Yarde, who has previously tried to fight both, he is not averse to sharing a ring with either man – the winner or loser – later this year.

“I hope so,” he said. “They’re two major fights in the UK for me. I’ve shown my personality. Even though people still question me, which I don’t understand, I’ve shown my character. I’ll fight literally anybody. I feel like both of them are fights that make sense for me in the future.”

For Anthony Yarde, the future starts on Sunday.