By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated #3 IBF and #3 WBO light heavyweight contender Anthony Yarde (15-0, 14 KOs) stopped French journeyman Tony Averlant (26-10-2, 5 KOs) in the 7th round on Saturday night in a mismatch at York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London, UK.
Yarde, 26, knocked Averlant down 2 times with left hand body shots in round 6. Yarde continued to tee off on Averlant in the 7h. In between the 7th and 8th, the fight was stopped by Averlant’s corner.
Although Yarde picked up the win and looked good most of the time, he showed a vulnerability to right hands from Averlant. Yarde was nailed 2 big right hands to the head in round 2 that had him looking troubled. Yarde wasn’t hurt by the shots in a major way, but he looked there for the taking if Averlant had been able to follow up with some additional right hands. This wasn’t the only time in the fight in which Yarde looked susceptible to right hands. Averlant nailed him with right hands in round 3 and 4 that landed in a way that had one concerned about the future of Yarde. In the 6th, Averlant hit Yarde with a left hook to the head that clearly stunned him for a moment, as his forward progress stopped and he looked momentarily hurt.
In round 2, Yarde attacked Averlant at will with hooks and uppercuts to the head. Yarde landed a big right hand uppercut late in the round. Averlant took the punch well, but he immediately moved away to the other size of the ring to try and escape Yarde’s pressure. Late in the round, Averlant landed 2 crunching right hands that shook Yarde. Instead of Averlant pouring it on by throwing a nonstop flurry of shots to get the hurt Yarde out of there, he moved away and let him survive. That proved to be a mistake on Averlant’s part. Averlant later landed another big right hand to the head of Yarde that caused his head to corkscrew. Yarde never stopped coming forward, landing big power shots to the head and body. Averlant motioned Yarde to keep coming at one point in the round after he took a right hook.
In round 3, Averlant nailed Yarde with a right hand that was every bit as good as the 2 hard rights he’d hit him with in the 2nd round. Yarde brushed it off and continued to pelt Averlant with shots.
Averland’s nose and left eye were reddened and swollen by the 6th round. He looked tire and hurt from all the heavy shots he’d been eating. During the round, Yarde knocked Averlant down twice with left hands to the body. Averlant took a ton of punishment after he got back up from the second knockdown in the round. He made it out of the round, but he was in bad shape. Yarde looked tired from throwing punches during the round. It was only the 6th round, and yet he was clearly exhausted.
In Round 7, Yarde hit Averlant at will with shots to the head and body. Yarde hit Averland with a right uppercut at the midpoint in the round that hurt him. Averlant got away and made it out of the round after taking additional punishment.
All in all, I wasn’t that impressed with what I saw from Yarde. He didn’t handle the right hands from Averlant well at all during the fight. Averlant isn’t a puncher at all. He came into the fight with a 13% knockout percentage. He shouldn’t have been able to stun Yarde the way he did with his punches. I hate to say it but I think there’s a good chance that Yarde is going to fall apart when he faces some stiff competition like WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev. That’s who Yarde will likely face soon with his #3 ranking with the World Boxing Organization at 175. Kovalev has had problems with his stamina and his ability to take body shots, but I think it won’t matter if he faces Yarde. The way that Yarde looked vulnerable to the right hands from the weak-punching Averlant in the first 2 rounds last Saturday, I can see Kovalev knocking him out in the 1st or 2nd rounds.
Yarde is like another Vyacheslav Shabranskyy with his ability to dish out heavy punishment, but not having the chin to take big shots in return. Shabranskyy would beat everyone that Yarde has on his resume and have a better record than him at 15-0 with 15 knockouts. There’s nobody that Yarde has fought that Shabranskyy wouldn’t beat by knockout. The thing is, Shabranskyy fell apart when he stepped it up from fighting the fodder opposition to facing Kovalev and Sullivan Barrera. I suspect we’re going to see the same thing with Yarde. I think it would be smart for Yarde’s handlers to wait another 3 more years before they put him in with a good fighter like Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev, or Dmitry Bivol, because I think those guys are simply too good for him right now. If Yarde waits before facing those guys, he can catch most of them when they’re older and not the fighters they are now. Of course, Bivol is a different story. He’s only 27 now, and he’s still going to be fighting at a high level in 3 years from now. With Yarde’s fragile chin, he probably should stay away from Bivol forever, since that’s a fight that he probably will never win.
The loss for Averlant was his 2nd in his last 4 fights. He was beaten by Dominic Boesel by a round unanimous decision in September 2016. Juergen Braehmer stopped Averlant in the 2nd round in April 2013. That stoppage shows you how far off Yarde is from a talent like Braehmer. I don’t think Yarde would ever beat a guy like Braehmer.
In the undercard of Yarde vs. Averlant, super featherweight Ronnie Clark (21-4, 10 KOs) defeated previously unbeaten Zelfa Barrett (19-1, 12 KOs) by a 10 round majority decision. The 24-year-old Barrett came into the fight with a lot of boxing fans favoring him to win. However, the 33-year-old Clark had too much variety and activity for Barrett to deal with. In round 6, Clark dropped Barrett with a big right uppercut to the head. I don’t know how Barrett was able to get back to his feet after that knockdown.
The scores were 116-111, 116-111 for Clark and 114-114. Boxing News 24 scored it for Clark by a 116-111 score. Barrett needs to go back to the drawing board and fix his leaky defense.