Russ Anber, WBC, WBO and IBF light heavyweight champion cutman Artur Beterbiev, praised fortitude Anthony Yarda during their title fight at the OVO arena in London, which ended in an early defeat of the British challenger in the eighth round.
"The first thing I said to Beterbiev's head coach Mark Ramsay during the fight was 'This guy is tougher than all the other opponents Beterbiev has fought'," Anber told BBC 5 Live Boxing. - He missed punches, other guys also missed, but they didn’t resist like he did. Marcus Brown was taking punches and he crumbled and didn't fight back, but this guy did. You have to give him credit."
“The pressure that Beterbiev is exerting forces his opponents into fifth gear when they still want to go into second. It forces you to switch to fifth literally immediately. You want to conserve strength, but this is not possible with Beterbiev. Yard needed to show courage and courage, to fight back, and he tried and did his best to use his strength to command respect from Beterbiev, and he did it. He succeeded. He put on a great performance."
“Stylistically, I expected it to be a tough fight, but I thought that as soon as he missed a few hits, he would fall apart,” Anber said. - But this did not happen, and he continued to resist. So we had to say to Beterbiev in the corner, "Let's get back to the jab."
The 38-year-old Beterbiev is scheduled to fight his next fight in the summer, possibly against his WBC mandatory challenger, Englishman Callum Smith.
