THIS fight is huge and something we’ve dreamed of and worked so hard for. For me, it’s similar to Ricky Hatton-Kostya Tszyu (in Manchester in June 2005).
Ricky beat an established world champion that night to become a big star and that’s why this fight is important to Ant.
He went great beating Beterbiev and it’s crazy to think that’s where Ant started his professional career (in May 2015 with Mitch Mitchell stopping two innings). We were the first on a bill with Bradley Skeete and Frank Buglioni on it and let’s see how far Ant has come since.
Bob Arum says Artur Beterbiev is a special, special fighter, but what about Ant? Let’s look at his story.
Beterbiev has had 300 amateur competitions and competed against the best in the Olympics and World Championships. By comparison, Ant had 12 amateur matches. Ant had less than 40 battles in his lifetime. That’s not normal. Ant is a special one. People don’t do what he does. They don’t go from a novice amateur to a world-class professional. It just didn’t happen.
He is not a UK amateur, he did not attend the Olympics, he had 12 amateur matches and now he is fighting for three world championship belts. gender.
People should talk about how great Ant is, not how great Beterbiev is. Ant is special, not Beterbiev. Beterbiev is clearly a great fighter in his position, but I don’t covet him the way some others do. I respect him, but I don’t really care what he did.
He hasn’t fought a puncher like Anthony Yarde and he’s been knocked out by people (Jeff Page Jnr and Callum Johnson) who don’t hit as hard as Ant. I believe that every opponent that Beterbiev has beaten in his professional career Ant will also beat.
Oleksandr Gzozdyk (10 .)order stoppage October 2019) is a good result, but Ant will do the same to him as Beterbiev did and I know he will also knock Joe Smith Jnr out in a couple of rounds.
The whole world wants to fight Joe Smith (beaten by Beterbiev in two rounds last June) because he’s so open and so easy to hit. It took Beterbiev 12 laps to catch up to Enrico Koelling (in November 2017) and 10 laps to eliminate Adam Deines (in March 2021) and I knew Ant would get the job done faster than either of them.
I know Betterbiev fought Dan Azeez and Callum Simpson, but there’s no way they can replicate what Ant will bring.
I believe Ant is getting better and better. I think his last two performances are his best. He looked great against Lyndon Arthur (in their rematch) and Stefani Koykov (in Telford last November).
He has matured since the match against (Sergey) Kovalev (in August 2019 when Yarde was defeated in 11 rounds).
It was his inexperience that cost him that night. I’m the only member of the corner team with world title experience. I was with Don Charles when Derek Chisora challenged Vitali Klitschko (in Munich in February 2012). That’s why we added James Cook to the team.
We’ve definitely seen Ant grow in the last few battles. Now he feels very different and he looks a lot different too.
What he’s been through with the death of his family (Yarde lost five family members over a period of several years) puts him on par with any world champion in mental toughness.
Ant has a whole family to take care of on his own and he just gets on with it. That made him stronger and I think this fight came at the right time for us.
Beterbiev banged the table during a press conference in December and that was unusual. He doesn’t usually do things like that. He definitely feels something that he doesn’t usually feel.
It will be a special night.
