Yard gave Beterbiev a tough fight, but lost ahead of schedule. After such a heavy victory

The British light heavyweight has long established himself as a high-class boxer. However, he had to wait for another chance to fight for the title after losing in 2019 from Sergey Kovalev for 4 whole years.

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To the long-awaited confrontation with Beterbiev , Anthony came up in great shape. It was assumed that the Briton could defeat the owner of three belts due to his pressing at the beginning of the meeting. In fact, Yard decided not to force things. 123Movies

In the first two rounds, Anthony looked at the opponent and allowed him to take the center of the ring. Beterbiev worked as a number and constantly tried to act serially. Yard remained in range and looked for his chance to attack.

The Briton began to slowly move forward only in the third and fourth rounds. Some of his attacks dealt considerable damage to the opponent. However, it was Beterbiev who controlled the fight so far. All the most interesting began to develop in the fifth round.

Anthony Yard

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In one of the episodes, Anthony hits the head of a Russian with his right side, after which he was seriously shocked. From that moment the meeting turned into an open one and the fighters made a real cutting in the ring.

The sixth segment turned out to be more or less calm, but the seventh turned out to be quite bright. First, Yard again hit Arthur on the head with a right hook and he was forced to defend.

But towards the end of the three-minute period, Beterbiev managed to pin his opponent in the corner. Those 30 seconds turned out to be extremely difficult for the Briton, but he still managed to get out of the pressure.

The eighth segment at first also turned out to be equal, however, closer to its middle, the right side flew already from Arthur’s side. After such a heavy hit, Anthony was knocked down.

The Briton got to his feet and wanted to continue the meeting, but a towel flew out of his corner. Representatives of the Yard team decided not to risk the health of their fighter and in the end they stopped the fight.

Beterbiev is still undefeated, but Anthony put up a very serious resistance to him. Such a fight is definitely not a cakewalk, and Yarde revealed a number of Arthur’s weaknesses in defense.

Arthur won, but they began to write him off

Now Beterbiev has 19 won fights and not a single defeat. At the same time, the Canadian boxer of Russian origin defeated each of his opponents ahead of schedule. 6 years have passed since Arthur became the world champion and during this time he has not let anyone close to his belts.

However, many experts are already beginning to write off Beterbiev due to his age. The Russian is already 38 and he is clearly not getting any younger. Nevertheless, he approached each of his fights in excellent physical shape.

The Yard fight is no exception, but this time Beterbiev missed too many punches. It became especially alarming for Arthur in the fifth round after that same right hook from the Briton.

It is noteworthy that according to the results of the judges’ cards, it was Anthony who won the fight until the eighth segment. The first two referees were on the British side: 68-65 and 67-66. And only the third judge gave the fight to Arthur, showing the numbers 67-66 in his favor.

The duel, indeed, came out very close and as competitive as possible. It was not the most convincing performance from Arthur, but still he won. However, Beterbiev received a lot of criticism for such a fight, and in a potential confrontation with Dmitry Bivol for the title of absolute world champion, he is now read as an underdog.

So, for example, thinks Tyson Fury’s ex-coach Ben Davison . Regarding the potential fight between Beterbiev and Bivol, he said the following:

In addition to Bivol, according to experts, Beterbiev has another serious rival. The same promoters started talking about the fact that Arthur could lose not only to Dmitry, but also to another Briton Callum Smith .

The confrontation between Smith and Beterbiev looks intriguing

Callum Smith

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Smith, unlike the same Beterbiev, has already lost in his career. In December 2020, as part of the super middleweight title fight, he was defeated by unanimous decision from Canelo .

That fight for the Briton was the last in the weight category up to 76.2 kg. Callum then moved up to light heavyweight and scored 2 early victories over Lenin Castillo and Mathieu Boderlik .

Smith clearly liked the new weight class and his 2 previous opponents did not even last until the middle of the fight. The first fell to the canvas already in the second round, and the next fell into a knockout in the fourth segment.

We can say that Callum has approached his peak and now he looks to Beterbiev no less of a threat than the same Yard. The Briton is 6 years younger than the current world champion and this is clearly on his side.

It is also worth noting that Smith has more significant dimensions. He is 9 cm taller than Arthur and 10 cm taller than Arthur. This will allow the British to keep Beterbiev at a distance, forcing him to constantly move closer.

Stylistically, this fight will be different from the one that the Russian had with Yard. Their meeting may take place by the end of the summer of 2023. In many ways, everything will depend on what kind of work on the mistakes Beterbiev will carry out.

The current world champion has a lot of problems in defense. The favorite of a potential fight will still be Arthur, but in his current form, Smith may well be the one to inflict Beterbiev’s first defeat in his career.