Former Olympic winner and world champion among professionals, and now ESPN commentator and analyst Andre Ward commented on the performance of British light heavyweight Anthony Yarde (23-3, 22 KOs) in the last fight against unified world champion Artur Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) from Canada.
Recall that the London Main Event late in the evening of January 28 ended with an early victory for Beterbiev in the 8th round.
Andre focused on the serious psychological pressure the challenger had to face in the ring.
“The pressure that Yard faced in that fight in the ring was that one mistake could end the fight the way it ended up,” Ward said. “I think it really could have turned out differently, but I’m not sure that Beterbiev felt the power of Yard to the same extent that Yard felt the power of Beterbiev.”
“Yard couldn’t get away from this anxiety and pressure: “If I make one mistake, he can turn off my light.” You end up having to fight under so much pressure, trying to get those thoughts out of your head and win the fight. It’s really difficult, ”Andre emphasized.
“I respect what I saw in the performance of Anthony Yard today,” summed up the famous American.
Other reviewers came up with this: such a Yard would knock out Kovalev, and Beterbiev “played a possum.”