Tony Yarde faces a huge challenge as a unified champion Arthur Beterbiev heads to London this weekend for an explosive light-heavyweight title fight.
Few give Hackney’s ‘Beast from the East’ any chance to cause what would become one of the greatest boxing disturbances of a British fighter in modern memory on Saturday night, although the presence of such a dominant champion on British soil should still make for a fantastic spectacle on Wembley Arena.
Undefeated Beterbiev is one of the sport’s most brutal and hard-hitting title lists, holding the IBF gold at 175 lbs since 2017 and adding the WBC belt two years later, before collecting the WBO belt with a second-round demolition of Joe Smith Jr in New York last summer.
The Russian fighting from Canada is only missing the WBA belt to complete the set, with an epic undisputed showdown against Dmitry Bivol potentially lurking later in 2023 if he can get past Yarde for the first time despite the potential his compatriot’s rematch with Canelo Alvarez.
A highly decorated amateur with European and world success, Beterbiev is 18-0 as a professional and all those wins come via knockout. Many just see it as a mission impossible for Yarde, who originally anticipated this fight in October before the champ suffered an injury.
The 31-year-old became Beterbiev’s mandatory WBO challenger after avenging his surprise defeat to domestic rival Lyndon Arthur with his own knockout in October 2021.
That fight was sandwiched by easy wins over Alex Theran and Stefani Koykov, with the 23-2 Yarde now three and a half years after going to Russia and really scaring Sergey Kovalev from his previous botched match, for a huge step up in the class is standing. challenge for the WBO light-heavyweight title in 2019.
Beterbiev vs Yarde date, start time, location and ring walks
Beterbiev vs Yarde will take place on Saturday 28 January 2023 at The SSE Arena, Wembley in London.
The main undercard kicks off at 7pm GMT, with ring walks for the main event expected around 10pm.
As always, exact times will depend on the length of the undercard fights.
Beterbiev vs Yarde fight card/undercard full
Supporting act is Artem Dalakian of Ukraine defending his WBA flyweight title against undefeated challenger David Jimenez of Costa Rica.
The Itauma brothers are also in action, with heavyweight prospect Moses making his pro debut and Karol fighting for his first title in the form of the vacant WBC International light-heavyweight title.
Charles “Boom Boom” Frankham looks set to go 7-0 against Colombia’s Joshua Ocampo and Hamzah Sheeraz’s cousin Umar Khan stages his sixth fight against India’s Sandeep Singh Bhatti. The WBO Inter-Continental light-heavyweight title is also on the line as Willy Hutchinson takes on Emil Markic.
Artur Beterbiev v Anthony Yarde
Artem Dalakian vs David Jimenez
Carol Itauma vs Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna
Willy Hutchinson to Emil Markic
Charles Frankham v Joshua Ocampo
Umar Khan v Sandeep Singh Bhatti
Sean Noakes v Santiago Garces
Tommy Fletcher vs. Darryl Sharp
Joshua Frankham and Joe Hardy
Khalid Ali vs Ivica Gogosevic
Mozes Itauma against Marcel Bode
How do you watch Beterbiev vs Yarde?
TV channel: In the UK, Beterbiev vs Yarde is available to watch live on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate, broadcasting from 7pm GMT.
Live stream: Subscribers can also follow the action live online via the BT Sport website or app.
Live coverage: Follow the whole card live coverage with Standard Sport’s Fight Night blog.
Beterbiev vs Yarde fight prediction
Brave Yarde will not be intimidated or intimidated by the big challenge that lies ahead this weekend.
He showed to Kovalev that he is unafraid when the odds are stacked firmly against him, and on that occasion he came close to shocking the world with an eighth-round stoppage.
While it’s extremely hard to see that happen again here, you can bet Yarde will give everything he’s got on home soil.
For all of Beterbiev’s terrifying power, his opponent also packs a huge punch and is only too happy to take advantage of any mistakes the Russian makes.
While the champion has plenty of knockouts in the first half of fights on his stellar resume, he was won nine rounds by Marcus Browne in a bloody affair in Montreal in December 2021 and also went ten rounds with both Adam Deines and Oleksandr Gvozdyk .
Yarde will no doubt give it a hard time and Beterbiev will probably have to methodically tear down another opponent here rather than score a quick highlight KO before rounding off a dominant performance in the latter stages.
Beterbiev wins by knockout in the ninth round.
Weighting results Beterbiev vs Yarde
The fighters took the scales Friday afternoon, with Beterbiev the slightly heavier of the two.
Yarde came in at 174.3 pounds, while Beterbiev weighed in at 174.5 pounds.
Beterbiev vs Yarde bets
Beterbiev to win: 1/12
Yarde wins: 6/1
Draw: 25/1
Beterbiev wins by KO, TKO or DQ: 1/5
Beterbiev wins by decision/technical decision: 11/2
Yarde wins by KO, TKO or DQ: 8/1
Yarde wins by decision/technical decision: 18/1
Odds via Betfair (subject to change).