By Matt Lieberman: Artur Beterbiev says he agrees with the decision for Tunde Ajayi, the trainer of Anthony Yarde, to have pulled him out in the eighth round because he didn’t “want to kill him, just win” last Saturday night in their title match at the OVO Arena in London, England.
It was evident that Yarde (23-3, 22 KOs) was hurt and wanted to be saved by his coach after he was knocked down by a right hand from IBF, WBC & WBO light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) in the eighth round. After Yarde got to his feet, he walked over to his corner on heavy legs and looked at his coach Tunde, perhaps wanting him to stop the fight.
Tunde didn’t pull the plug at that moment, but shortly thereafter, when the fight resumed, he quickly had the bout stoppages after Beterbiev nailed the defenseless, cowering Yarde with repeated heavy shots to the head.
Beterbiev set traps
“I’m just starting. To be honest, I’m just waking up in these rounds,” said Artur Beterbiev at the post-fight press conference, saying that he was just getting started by the eighth round and wanted to really start showing what he could do from the 9th through the 12th.
It did appear that Beterbiev was just warming up by the seventh round, as that’s when he started to beat Yarde up, hurting him with big shots. What was interesting is how Beterbiev would move to the corner, allowing Yarde to go on the attack.
Once he did, Beterbiev would skillfully spin Yarde around and have him with his back against the ropes, and he would pound him unceasingly with hard blows to the head & body.
You could see the difference in skills with how Beterbiev would set these traps because he wanted Yarde to attack him in the corner so that he could turn him around to pound him on the ropes, where he could not get out of the way of his sledgehammer blows.
Pulling Yarde out was “good decision”
“It was a good decision,” said Beterbiev about the fight being halted by Yarde’s trainer in the eighth. “His coach has to feel his fighter when to stop. He knows him better and stops it. I don’t want to kill someone. I just want to win,” said Beterbiev.
“I think it was the right moment,” said Beterbiev’s trainer Marc Ramsay on Yarde being pulled out of the fight in the 8th. “We can see from the corner that he didn’t want to continue. He looked a little in his corner for some help. I think it was the right move.
“You need to protect him. This is our job as a boxing coach. Our first job is to protect your boxer. He did his job.”
