Anthony Yarde insists he 'won't be fazed' by Sergey Kovalev title fight: 'I know that I am ready'

Anthony Yarde defended his intercontinental light-heavyweight title against Travis Reeves at the Royal Albert Hall
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John Dillon27 March 2019

Anthony Yarde came late to boxing at the age of 19 but eight years later, his opportunity for world title success is arriving ahead of schedule.

The light-heavyweight from Ilford has been named as mandatory challenger for the WBO belt held by Russian Sergey Kovalev only 18 fights into his professional career.

The fact that 27-year-old Yarde has won 17 of them by knockout explains his rapid rise to prominence after only four years in the paid ranks and just 12 amateur contests beforehand.

Now tricky talks are underway aimed at bringing the hard-hitting Russian champion to London for a late spring or early summer showdown - although it could go to purse bids - with the WBO having set a mid-April deadline for the fighters and promoter Frank Warren to agree a deal.

It is a remarkable rise for the Hackney-born fighter who earned a trial at QPR and was a sub-11 seconds 100 metres sprinter before he settled on the ring as his route to the top.

He said: “I have been doing my apprenticeship as a boxer in public because things have escalated for me so quickly. But I guess if you keep knocking people out then it is going to get attention very quickly.

“Every year as a professional I have been further ahead than I planned.

“Now I feel as if I have the beating of all the world champions out there and if I get the Kovalev fight, I won’t be fazed.

“It is a difficult juggling act when you knock people out so regularly because you also want to get experience in the ring. But that is what the people want to see and if it is there for the taking, you have to go for it.

“It has meant growing up as a fighter under a lot of but that’s the way it is and I'm happy to deal with that. I know that I am ready.

“There is a reason, too, why I only had 12 amateur fights. Nobody would fight me because I won 11 times by knockout. So I had to turn pro.

“I grew up in Stratford and Forest Gate and I was a hot-headed and bad-tempered kid. There were a lot of arguments. But when I was 13, two kids tried to steal from me in the streets.

"In self-defence, I hit one of them and he dropped to the floor and was down for quite a while. The other one shied away. That’s when it first dawned that I had power.

“Then it was watching a documentary about Mike Tyson which got me excited about boxing. He was a smaller guy for a heavyweight and at six feet, I am not the tallest around in the heavier divisions.

“But I loved watching Tyson in his prime knock out all those bigger guys. I love to finish people in the same way.”

Yarde’s most recent victory was a fifth-round stoppage last month of the veteran American Travis Reeves, which was notable for the fact that it was the headline attraction at the Royal Albert Hall, one of London’s most iconic boxing venues.

It was only the second show there in two decades and Yarde added: “It was such an honour to put on a good performance there. And it was also another accomplishment which showed me how far I have come and how quickly.”

There will also be increasing clamour for a future date between Yarde and south London's 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Joshua Buatsi after the latter extended his record of straight wins by defeating Liam Conroy for the British light-heavyweight title last weekend.

Many will also want to see Yarde meet fellow unbeaten London contender Joshua Buatsi 
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The light-heavyweight division is one of boxing’s toughest at present, with three of the champions - Dmitry Bivol (WBA), Artur Beterbiev (IBF) and Oleksandr Gvozdyk (WBC) - all unbeaten but also relatively inexperienced professionally, like Yarde.

Yarde was offered the chance to challenge Kovalev last year but his handlers wisely considered that it was too early in his development.

Now there is a belief that the Londoner could meet the Russian at an opportune time with the 35-year-old seemingly on the slide.

He has lost three of his last six fights but won the WBO belt for a third time in his most recent bout against Colombian Eleider Alvarez last month – having lost it to him six months earlier.

Kovalev held three belts between 2013 and 2016 – WBA, IBF, and WBO – and won the WBO belt for a second time in 2016.

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