What do you think of Saturday’s opponent, Tony Averlant?
He’s got a lot more experience me. I’m just in my own little bubble right now, trying to progress myself. Trying to become a better fighter. There’s a lot to deal with as a fighter. There’s pressure. People expect all these things of you. You expect things of yourself. You want to progress so much in your life.
I’m trying to make everything as simple as possible. For me simplicity means happiness. That’s why you see my smile all the time.
You seem a big light-heavyweight, do you do the weight easily?
The weight’s fantastic. Look at my opponent, Tony Averlant, he’s a lot taller than me. I’m more broad but again at the same time I would say he’s a big light-heavy because of his height, reach etc.
Weight isn’t an issue for me.
You’ve looked really good in your performances so far, but could this fight be the fight where someone makes you look bad?
Styles make fights. It’s all about gaining experience, not worrying what people think. If he is that awkward opponent, you know, there was a fight a couple of weeks ago, where everyone was expecting good things. The fight was very boring but one person got the result they wanted but a lot of people were disappointed in their performances, because the styles clashed. I think you know what fight I’m talking about. The styles clashed very badly and it ended up being a boring fight. But one person’s gone away with the victory.
Sometimes you do have fights where people are going to have negative reports and say he looked rubbish. It’s about focusing on yourself, understanding that Floyd Mayweather, he didn’t look fantastic in every fight.
You can’t look fantastic in every fight.
On the flip side, you can’t get carried away with being hyped?
Exactly. I’m always I keep in my head positivity. I’m going to go out there and put on a fantastic performance and be explosive. Get the knockout, be entertaining for the fans, people that are paying money basically. At the same time being sharp, using my boxing skills and doing it the right.
They talked in the press conference about you moving to world level, is that your plan, is that how you see things developing this year?
It will develop how it’s going develop. Tunde [Ajayi] and Frank [Warren], they’re in charge of who I’m fighting and how it’s progressing. Tunde has a bird’s eye view, he’s with me every day, seeing how I deal with each. People need to understand, each fight things might happen and you might deal with it in different ways.
I feel like I’m strengthening myself in each fight and Tunde can see and that’s why I’m developing slowly but surely.
They’re thinking of doing a light-heavyweight version of the World Boxing Super Series, next time around and would you like to get involved?
It would be very early for me but all these kind of things excite me. It would be fantastic. If I went into something like that and win it, that would be history. This kid’s come out of nowhere, he’s had 12 amateur fights and he’s done this.
It would be exciting but you’ve got a manager and promoter for a reason. They might want to take a different route but again that hasn’t happened yet. It’s a fairy tale. So my only focus is what’s real and that’s what’s in front of me.
But if Nieky Holzken can jump into the super-middleweights, Anthony Yarde can.
Absolutely. My capabilities are beyond measure… But you can only see that with time. I believe everything’s timing and at the right time you will see Anthony Yarde.
