TWO-TIME world title challenger, Anthony Yarde is set to collide with a familiar foe in two months’ time, as he seeks to mount another charge towards the light heavyweight marbles.
Yet, despite his next outing already being announced, Yarde’s promoter Frank Warren has looked towards another all-British clash for what would be Yarde’s second bout of 2025.
After establishing himself as a knockout artist at domestic level, Yarde, 26-3 (24 KOs), made the monumental jump up to the world stage to challenge Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight title in 2019, losing for the first time in his career when stopped in the 11th round.
Following two stoppage wins, Yarde would pick up a shock second defeat when he was trumped by a split-decision to Lyndon Arthur the following year but went on to avenge that loss with a fourth-round knockout 12 months later.
After giving a good account of himself in defeat against Artur Beterbiev in 2023 and scoring three wins since, Yarde and Arthur are set to meet for a third time when they take on one another on the Eubank-Benn bill at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April.
Meanwhile, two of the United Kingdom’s other title threats at the weight went toe-to-toe on Saturday night, as Callum Smith, 31-2 (22 KOs), outpointed Joshua Buatsi, 19-1 (13 KOs), in a barnstormer on the much-lauded ‘Last Crescendo’ card in Riyadh for the WBO Interim light heavyweight crown.
Afterward, Frank Warren explained to Boxing News that he would like make Yarde versus Smith, but also mentioned Buatsi as a potential opponent given his tremendous effort in defeat.
“I’d like to see Anthony in with Callum, or Josh. Josh did extremely well, it was a great fight. He had a bad cut, Callum, he boxed extremely well but so did Josh – and what courage he showed! He gritted his teeth in that fight, didn’t he, and he came through.”
As for Yarde, the hard-hitting Londoner admitted that he would like to face the victor of Buatsi-Smith prior to their fight, but he must not allow his attention to deviate from Arthur, who will be keen to spoil his rival’s plans when they meet in a grudge match trilogy on April 26.
