By Trevor McIntyre: Undefeated WBO Inter-Continental Light Heavyweight champion Anthony Yarde (18-0, 17 KOs) obliterated his over-matched 38-year-old opponent Travis Reeves (17-4-2, 7 KOs) by a fifth round knockout on Friday night in a scheduled 10 round contest at the Royal Albert Hall, in Kensington, UK.
Yarde, 27, didn’t look all that impressive until hurting the American Reeves with a left hook to the head in the fifth. The big shot from Yarde shook Reeves up to his boots. Yarden then clocked Reeves with a right to the head, and nailed him with a nice rabbit shot to the back of his head. Reeves bravely tried to cover up, but Yarde was finding him with wide power shots to the head. Reeves was virtually defenseless at the time the referee Marcus McDonnell stepped in and halted the fight with him still on his his feet. The fight could have gone on a little while longer, but McDonnell didn’t want to take chances obviously. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:48 of round five.
This wasn’t entirely a mismatch. Reeves landed some shots during the fight, and the rounds were somewhat competitive despite this being a gross mismatch on paper. Reeves held his on at times, and didn’t look bad for a 38-year-old that was out of his class.
Ideally, it would be nice to see Yarde matched against someone like Callum Johnson, Joshua Buatsi or Sullivan Barrera before challenging WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev for his title, but that’s not likely to happen. #1 WBO Yarde wants to fight for a world title now, and that means the 35-year-old Kovalev could be next. It’s going to be a major step up in class for Yarde, and it’s not likely to end well for him.
Although Yarde has excellent punching power, his defense, stamina and experience are less than what they should be for him to be taking on a world class fighter like Kovalev. The Russian fighter has slipped a couple of notches from the level where he was at a few years ago, but he’s still more than good enough to beat the likes of Yarde. The lack of experience that Yarde has will be his undoing when he gets inside the ring with Kovalev or any of the world champions at 175.
If Yarde could pick up a few more years of experience before fighting for a world title, he might have a shot at winning a belt one of these days. But even if Yarde did choose to wait a while longer, it’s unlikely that he would gain from it due to the way that he’s being matched by his promoter. He’s being fed poor opposition, the kind where you don’t improve from fighting them. That’s why it’s useless for Yarde to wait longer before fighting for a world title. As the saying goes, ‘trash in trash out.’ Yarde won’t improve from continuing to fight the opposition he’s been fighting.
Liam Williams vs. Joe Mullender – RESULTS
Fringe middleweight contender Liam Williams (20-2-1, 15 KOs) picked up his fourth consecutive win in stopping Joe Mullender (11-3, 5 KOs) in the second round in a successful defense of his British 160 lb title. Williams, 26, knocked Mullender down in the second round with a big shot. After the 32-year-old Mullender got back up, Williams unloaded on him to get a stoppage. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:09 of round 2.
Williams looks like an improved fighter from the guy that was beaten twice in a row by former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith in 2017. Williams’ defense is still porous. Williams showed nothing from his fight tonight that would suggest that he’d be able to match-up against World Boxing Organization middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade if he were facing him now. Williams’ punching power is top rate, but not his defensive skills. His tendency to suffer cuts is also a potential problem in the future when he eventually steps it up again.
Daniel Dubois vs. Razvan Cojanu – RESULTS
In a predictable slaughter, heavyweight prospect Daniel Dubois (10-0, 9 KOs) knocked out the 6’8″ Razvan Cojnu (16-6, 9 KOs) by a second round knockout. The 6’5″ Dubois dropped Cojanu down hard in the second round after hitting him with four big shots when he was backed up against the ropes. The fight was then halted. Time of the stoppage at 2:48. Dubois looked good in beating a bad opponent. Now it’s up to Dubois’ promoter to see if he steps him up against better opposition or if he chooses to continue this level of opposition for a little while longer. Dubois looks capable of beating much better opposition than this, but he’s not getting the opportunity to show it due to the match-making that’s being done on his behalf.
Chris Jenkins vs. Johnny Garton – RESULTS
Welterweight Chris Jenkin (21-3-2, 8 KOs) defeated British welterweight champion Johnny Garton (23-2-1, 10 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 119-109, 116-112, and 117-112.
Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Rod Douglas Jr.- RESULTS
Undefeated junior middleweight Hamzah Sheeraz (7-0, 3 KOs) defeated Rod Douglas Jr. (2-2) by a first round knockout after dropping him in three times in the fight.