The day before in London (England), the WBC / IBF / WBO light heavyweight champion (up to 79.4 kg), acting under the Canadian flag, Russian Artur Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) successfully defended his titles and maintained a perfect record on the results mandatory defense against British challenger Anthony Yarde (23-3, 22 KOs), having won an early victory in the 8th round.
After the fight, Beterbiev answered several questions for British broadcaster BT Sport.
On how tough the fight was:
“Every fight is different. Different feelings, different preparation. And the fighters are different. I can’t say that I had a very bad fight, but if I did it again, I would like to do better.”
Beterbiev – Yard. Video knockout
Did the Yard turn out to be more difficult than Beterbiev expected:
“Every boxer in this weight class can hit hard. And Anthony too. Is he now 28 (years old)? 31? And I saw somewhere that 28 or 29 … But he is still young, at the age of 28 I just started playing professionally. So he still has time and I hope he does well in the future.”
On reaction to opponent’s blows:
“Honestly, every shot he threw, we prepared for every shot. So I answered, again and again. Because we expected these blows.”
Beterbiev lost to the Yard: notes of the judges at the time of the stoppage of the fight
On how nice it is to keep a 100% knockout rate:
“I hope someday I’ll be a good boxer (laughs).”
On a possible future fight against Bivol:
“Now everything is at stake in this fight. There will be four belts at stake in this fight. It will be a very good fight. (About which one is better) We will only know after the fight.”
‘I hope one day to be a good boxer’ ????
Artur Beterbiev is in high spirits after a Fight of the Year contender with Anthony Yarde ????#BeterbievYarde #boxing pic.twitter.com/Hl1m4VKmLq
— Boxing on BT Sport???? (@BTSportBoxing) January 28, 2023