ANTHONY YARDE secured an extraordinary revenge win over Lyndon Arthur at the Copper Box in London on Saturday (December 4).
Arthur had won their first bout in style last year, relying on his jab after injuring his right hand to outbox and outpoint the Londoner. But he wasn’t able to repeat the feat here. Yarde stormed into him in the first round. He ripped a heavy cross into Arthur’s chin and attacked the body with hooks. London’s Yarde was using his physicality to move inside quickly and bomb past Lyndon’s lead left.
In the second round Arthur caught him up in clinches and stemmed some of the Londoner’s work. But Yarde still managed to cuff a hard right hook into the side of his head.
Yarde started the third round snapping a left hook into the Mancunian’s head. These were solid shots he was sinking in. He backed up a heavy cross with another left hook, forcing Lyndon to the ropes. But Arthur could still find counters, dashing his cross into Yarde’s jaw.
Yarde however was undeterred. Arthur opened the fourth round with a hefty straight one-two. Yarde still was simply ferocious. He unloaded barrages of punches, raining those shots into the Commonwealth champion as he covered up. Yarde was shaking up Arthur, hurting him and with a right hook blasted Lyndon into the ropes. He dropped to the canvas and had to be stopped, referee Bob Williams waving it off at 1-27.
Yarde not only won the Commonwealth light-heavyweight title. He issued a warning to the division and served notice that he could threaten the world class fighters both in Britain and overseas.
