Anthony Yarde angry after loss to Lyndon Arthur

By Boxing News - 12/06/2020 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Anthony Yarde (20-2, 19 KOs) was seemingly in a state of denial following his 12 round split decision defeat to unbeaten Commonwealth light heavyweight champion Lyndon Arthur (18-0, 12 KOs) last Saturday night at the Church House in Westminster, UK.

Yarde looked highly agitated during the post-fight interview, and he clearly wasn’t handling his defeat with the right mindset. Instead of admitting that he wasn’t good enough, he saw it as a situation where the judges got it wrong.

Yarde says he should have won and denied the reality of what had happened. For some reason, he couldn’t grasp why judges scored the fight in Artur’s favor.

Yarde, 29, is convinced that two of the judges got it wrong with them scoring it 115-114, 115-114 for Arthur. The third judge [Ian John-Lewis] is the one Yarde agrees with, and he had him winning by an absurd 117-111 score.

Charles Brun didn’t agree with any of those scores. He had Lyndon winning 118-110 and taking Yarde to school with just one hand.

It might not be a good idea for Yarde to fight Arthur again because he doesn’t possess the talent to beat him. The rematch will likely be worse if Arthur’s right hand is healed by the time the two of them fight again.

Lyndon fought like Joe Joyce

Arthur put on the best Joe Joyce imitation one could ever see in controlling the power-punching Yarde with just a mere jab, and a little bit of movement to along with it.

That’s all Arthur needed for him to make Yarde look like an amateur for 12 rounds. Arthur revealed that he had a hand injury, which limited his ability to throw with his right. You can only imagine what the outcome would have been if Arthur was 100% on the night.

YouTube video

“It was a really close fight,” said Frank Warren. “It was an eventually matched fight. And it was cagey at first, but as the rounds went on, it got a little bit more lively. I thought it was close.

“They both want a rematch, so let’s make a rematch. It’s not the end of the world. He didn’t get beat up or anything,” Warren said of Yarde.

“He actually said it himself that it’s a learning fight. He’s got to go back and watch it, and if we make the rematch, it’s a great opportunity for him to turn it around and make it into a rubber match.

I’ll have a word with them next week and see how it goes. I’d like to see it again. I think the winner is going to go in and get a shot at a world title. That’s what I think will happen,” said Warren.

If they’re going to do it again, Yarde needs to be quick about giving his trainer Tunde the boot and find someone that can actually teach him something. Yarde needs to learn how to get past a jab because he clearly didn’t last Saturday.

Yarde didn’t want to take chances

“When I was an amateur, it went to points and they gave it to the guy. It was worse than amateurs because it was only three rounds,” said Yarde. “This feels like the same feeling, a very similar feeling.

Image: Anthony Yarde angry after loss to Lyndon Arthur

I’m very confident, and very strongly opinionated that I won the fight. I pressured the whole fight, and I was on the front foot. I felt like I landed the clean effective punches, and again, I hurt him.

“At no point in the fight did he hurt me, rock me, or stop me from coming forward. If you look at the way I was boxing, in the later rounds, I was confident that I was up on the scorecards. It’s living and learning.

“In boxing, I’m going through my career and still learning with every fight. One thing I’ve learned is not to be silly. You don’t walk into shots,” Yarde said when asked why he didn’t fight more aggressively.

There’s not much you can go when a fighter is too afraid to fight past a jab, especially a weak, pawing one like Arthur was throwing the entire fight. Yarde was treating Arthur’s jabs like they were power shots, and he wanted no part of trying to nullify them.

When Yarde did start to apply pressure in the later rounds, it was ineffective pressure and not enough for him to get to Arthur.

Anthony was confident he was beating Arthur

“You don’t get reckless and start throwing wild shots,” said Yarde in continuing to talk about why he didn’t fight aggressively. “Of course, there are things I could have done differently, but at the time, I was confident that I was winning rounds.

Image: Anthony Yarde angry after loss to Lyndon Arthur

“I few rounds I gave him, a couple of rounds I gave him, but I was confident that I was winning the rounds round by round.

“And I don’t think the judges were scoring the hard right hands to the body, and the pressure that I was making the fight. I don’t know.

“Yeah, he fought how I expected, flicking that jab. He caught me with a few good jabs.

“When I’m sparring, the slightest little jabs, and I’m marked. But again, the cleaner more effective shots [were landed by me]. I hurt him several times in the fight. I’m confident of that.

“He was holding, which is smart and it’s a good experience,” said Yarde when asked if he thought he could get Arthur out in the 12th. “But I was still confident. That was like a solidifier because obviously everyone knows my style.

“I wanted to please the fans and get a knockout because in the last round, I wanted to put a stamp on it. I hurt him a couple of times but he survived by holding and stuff,” said Yarde.

Someone should have told Yarde the truth in his corner between rounds that he was losing the fight and letting Arthur run away with it using his jab.

YouTube video

Anyone could see the situation was dire for Yarde by the championship rounds, and he needed a knockout or some knockdowns to win.

Yarde wants a rematch

“100 percent,” Yarde said when asked if he thought he had won the fight. “I’ll go and watch the fight. I’m an open and honest person. But absolutely, 100%, I thought I won the fight. I pressured the whole fight.

Image: Anthony Yarde angry after loss to Lyndon Arthur

“And I made the whole fight, and I landed the cleaner more effective shots. I stopped him completely from throwing his right hand. he landed one right hand, which landed.

“The second right hand got countered. After that, I hit him and hurt him heavy. I wobbled him a couple of times, and in the mid-fight, I caught him with a clean right hand. I hit him with a left hook that sent him halfway across the ring.

“That’s my recall of the fight. The jabs to the body, I know they don’t count as anything. I know they’re not hard. But again, it’s boxing.

“I’ve always had the mentality because of what happened to be in the amateurs. I’ve always had the mentality of don’t leave it in the hands of judges.

“I thought I won the fight. Stylistically, they want to see me knocking everybody out. They want to see me landing big shots. I feel like sometimes the judges are playing to the crowd.

“100 percent,” Yarde said when asked if he wants a rematch with Arthur. “I could have stopped him, but it’s about risk in boxing. Sometimes you have to be careful.

“You can’t go in wreckless. You’ve got to work your way in. He said that it was hard for him to land his right hand because of my defense. ‘You hurt me at the end with a body shot.’

Image: Anthony Yarde angry after loss to Lyndon Arthur

“I love my respect because there’s respect between us. After the fight, he said the same thing,” Yarde said.