ANTHONY Yarde hopes to take a step back towards world class when he appears at the Copper Box Arena this Saturday evening. The Hackney light heavy features as part of an eight-fight undercard, supporting the Adam Azim-Ohara Davies main event on Sky Sports.
Yarde will showcase his talents on a Boxxer/Ben Shalom show rather than the usual TNT/Queensberry Promotions set-up that has served so well throughout a nine-year career that has seen him clash with Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev.
While his next opponent does not belong in such esteemed company, Latvia’s Ralfs Vilcans does have reasonable past form. ‘The Train’ was derailed three fights ago by Denmark’s unbeaten Jacob Bank but rebounded in his last outing to smash Shefat Isufi in two rounds.
That shock victory ended an 11-fight winning streak that Isufi had amassed since a 2019 world title loss to Billy Joe Saunders. That may be a career-high moment for Vilcans as this is the Anthony Yarde show. Where his future lies is an interesting ongoing question. Yarde is now 33 years old and 25-3 (24). Victory here is vital if he is to move on and tackle the likes of Joshua Buatsi and Callum Smith in desired domestic dust-ups.
