By Allan Fox: Unable to come to an agreement on a deal for a title defense in negotiations with the management of WBO mandatory challenger Anthony Yarde (18-0, 17 KOs), WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events reportedly will be asking for an immediate purse bid with the World Boxing Organization for next Monday, according to ESPN. The date that Duva has set aside for the Kovalev vs. Yarde fight is on June 1. The fight will be streamed on ESPN+.
Duva has been in negotiations with Yarde’s promoter Frank Warren for 2 weeks now, but they’ve been unable to come to an agreement. As such, Duva is asking for an immediate purse bid. She wants the Kovalev-Yarde fight to take place in Chelyabinsk, Russia, which is where the 35-year-old Kovalev (33-3-1, 28 KOs) was born. He lives in the United States in Los Angeles, California now, but they’re hoping to have the fight staged in his hometown if possible. Kovalev has never fought in Chelyabinsk before, so this would be a special present to his boxing fans in that city. Duva has an arena already booked in Chelyabinsk, according to Dan Rafael.
Kovalev will get the lion’s share of the purse if it goes to a purse bid, as it’ll be a 70-30 split. Whether Yarde’s promoter Frank Warren can get a better deal remains to be seen. He’ll need to come to an agreement with Duva to avert the purse bid that she’s asking the WBO schedule.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Yarde, 27, and his promoter back out of the Kovalev fight if they lose the purse bid. Kovalev is co-promoted by Top Rank Boxing, and they’re not likely to lose this purse bid. That would put Yarde in position where he’ll need to take the smaller purse split, and travel to Russia to fight Kovalev there. With as much experience as Kovalev has, he could probably beat Yarde even if it took place in the British fighter’s backyard in London, England. Yarde hasn’t been taking on world class level fighters since he turned pro.
Although Yarde has received a slight bump up in the level of his opposition in the last two years, he’s still facing lower level guys and not the type that he needed to be facing to get ready for a guy like Kovalev. In Yarde’s last five fights, he’s beaten these fighters: Travis Reeves, Walter Gabriel Sequeira, Dariusz Sek, Tony Averlant and Nikola Sjekloca. Those would be good fighters for Yarde to face in his first year as a pro, but not in his fourth year. He should be fighting better guys for him to get ready for a world title fight against Kovalev. If Yarde decides he’s not going to take the fight with Kovalev, he’ll take a ton of criticism from the boxing public, and he’ll probably lose his #1 ranking with the World Boxing Organization. The sanctioning body isn’t going to keep Yarde at the #1 spot if he turns down the fight with Kovalev due to him being unhappy at losing the purse bid, and needing to go to Russia to fight him. Yarde’s lack of experience at the pro level would put him wedged between a rock and a hard place no matter where the fight takes place. It would have been better for Yarde to pick up an interim strap with one of the sanctioning bodies and then sit on the title for a few years before looking to challenge for the full world title against one of the champions.
Yarde has excellent punching power, and good boxing skills. What he doesn’t have is the chin, and of course the experience needed for him to compete against a seasoned pro like Kovalev, who is coming off an impressive 12 round unanimous decision win over unbeaten Eleider Alvarez last February. Kovalev’s game has been greatly improved with new trainer former world champion Buddy McGirt, who has him boxing like he used to do when he was an amateur in Russia. Kovalev is focusing less on trying to knockout his opponents, and more on just using his superb skills to win. Going back to Kovalev’s old style of fighting seems to have rejuvenated him, making him a threat to any of the top fighters in the 175 lb division.