Anthony Yarde‘s last two defeats have come at the hands of David Benavidez and Artur Beterbiev.
Yarde came up short in his bid to win the WBC light-heavyweight title on Saturday when he was stopped by Benavidez in the seventh round of their clash in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It was the second time that Yarde has been stopped in a world title fight, after an eighth round TKO loss to Beterbiev back in January 2023.
Having felt first hand what it feels like to share the ring with the pair of big-punching 175lb fighters, Yarde told Boxing King Media who he thought was the harder hitter of the two.
“I know it sounds crazy, but in this fight against Benavidez, other than when he hit me when I was down, he never hurt me, but Beterbiev hurt me.
“I think it was the second round, Beterbiev hit me with a left hook at the end of the round and that buzzed me, but with Benavidez, they were overwhelming punches but none were hurting me, even the body shots, they weren’t hurting me.”
Benavidez extended his unbeaten record to 31-0 with the win over Yarde, 25 of those wins by knockout. He is now set to move up to cruiserweight for his next fight to take on unified world champion Gilberto Ramirez.
As for Beterbiev, the 40-year-old has won 20 of his 21 fights by knockout, with just one defeat coming to Dmitry Bivol in February. The duo were expected to meet again at some stage, but it is currently unknown when that may be.
