King Artur is ready to light up London.
WBC/IBF/WBO Lightweight World Champion Artur Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs), the only boxing world champion with a 100% knockout rate, will face British big-boxer Anthony Yarde (23-2, 22 KOs) on Saturday night at OVO Arena Wembley. Beterbiev-Yarde and undercard games will stream live and exclusively in the US on ESPN+ at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT.
Beterbiev returned to London for the first time since he represented Russia at the 2012 Olympics. He lost a decisive match to Oleksandr Usyk in the quarter-finals of the heavyweight quarter, which ended his amateur career. Beterbiev has lived in Montreal for over a decade and played his first eight professional games in Canada. He won the IBF title in 2017, won the WBC crown in 2019 with a thrilling knockout against Oleksandr Gvozdyk, and won another WBO belt last June with a baton kick into the ring. two of Joe Smith Jr.
Yarde doesn’t have the same amateur pedigree as Beterbiev, but he establishes himself as one of the strongest boxers in the weight class. He has won his last three matches, including a knockout in the fourth round of 2021 against Lyndon Arthur, who overthrew Yarde by split in 2020. Yarde had been fighting for it. previous world championship, losing in the 11th knockout round to Sergey Kovalev after narrowly stopping Kovalev in the round of 16.
Here’s what the main event warriors had to say after Wednesday’s media practice.
Artur Betterbiev
“I had a good camp. I played well. I’ll do my best.”
“My team and I always try to be ready for anything, any strategy.”
“I can’t compare {Yarde} to Joe Smith. It was a different match. Joe Smith had the belt at the time. No comparison.”
About a potential fight by Dmitry Bivol
“It’s Saturday night. I’m just thinking about Saturday night.”
Anthony Yarde
“If you look at what he’s achieved so far, it’s incredible, and that’s what excites me. So again, I beat him, I deserve it. respect.”
“I don’t look at what any other boxer has done {with him}. I don’t look at what he has done with other fighters. In fact, all you look at is style. , but even that, you can’t accept many words. You only know when you walk in there with one person, and you both form and you both start a leather goods business.”
“He’s never been in a lost situation. But for me, it’s all about me. That’s who I am. That’s how I operate. It’s about me and my legacy. He just the one with the belt.”
With home field advantage
“I just feel like this one feels right. This one feels better. {The match against Serge Kovalev} doesn’t. All that matters is when we get into that ring. Everything has been said before. is all he says, she says possibilities and things like that. When we’re in the ring, that’s when we’ll see.”
