WBO mandatory challenger Anthony Yarde took a major step up in class as he challenged WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Sergey Kovalev in Russia yesterday. There were a lot of questions being asked of both men in the lead up to this matchup and they were answered quite clearly yesterday. For Yarde the question was raised: is this too much too soon? And for Kovalev the question was: did he have enough left to compete at the top level and still hang with the young guns or at least enough to deal with the athletically gifted Yarde? Well it was clear that the latter proved to be true. Kovalev appeared to be controlling the first half of the fight with his powerful stiff jab but Yarde started to change things up a bit in the seventh round as he became more aggressive and started to get inside and work Kovalev’s body. Then in the eighth Yarde looked like he was one or two punches away from stopping Kovalev and it all started with a huge left hook to the body followed up with a big right hand to the head. Kovalev was able to hold on and Yarde seemed to have punched himself out in the eighth and could not reproduce the same fireworks from there on out. Then in the eleventh Kovalev landed a short power jab that put Yarde down for good and he was not able to continue. Credit to Yarde for his valiant effort but one has to ask: was he prepared for this huge task with only eighteen fights under his belt against nondescript competition?Eric and Beeb will answer that question and recap this fight as well as the rest of the past week's boxing action.
