Former unified world heavyweight champion (up to 90.7 kg) Latvian Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20 KOs) gave
interview YouTube channel “Viktor Yalymov’s Boxing Studio”.
Briedis commented on the early victory of the unified light heavyweight champion (up to 79.4 kg) Canadian Artur Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) over British challenger Anthony Yard (23-3, 22 KOs). Mairis appreciated the performance of Beterbiev and Yard, and also spoke about the possible confrontation between Artur and the unified heavyweight champion (over 90.7 kg) from Ukraine Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs).
Report from vRINGe: Beterbiev Yard. Fireworks in London
– How do you like the fight and what can you say about the fight Beterbiev – Yard?
— I looked a little. I saw that Arthur missed a lot. Even in some moments he swam, but lost on cards. But he knew… Everyone knew how he hits, how he hurts. Of course, you can’t skip that much. This accumulates, and we need to live with our heads all our lives. His style reminded me a bit of Golovkin’s style. Because Golovkin is the same – he takes a lot, and then he interrupts with his sledgehammers. We saw the result in the eighth round.
Did they give Yard a chance in this fight?
“I was actually thinking about age, how Arthur would feel, because we are the same age. But the pace was quite interesting, fun, there were a lot of punches, there were a lot of hits and hits, so I thought: “How will he feel after the tenth round?” But they didn’t wait. I saw Yard dodge a couple of times and deliberately-unintentionally crossed himself. Because the blows are really strong. When they fly by – like a bullet whistles past the ears. Wasn’t attentive enough.
“I’m lucky.” Press conference of Artur Beterbiev
– The sore subject of Artur Beterbiev is, probably, Oleksandr Usyk. They met as amateurs three times, the score was 2:1. Have you seen at least one of the fights?
— Yes, I did, but then again, we can’t compare a 3-round fight with a 12-round one, and Alexander and Artur’s motivation at that moment. This is the past, but we must look to the future. If now, then Alexander is harder. Arthur is a hitter, but we’ve seen what speed and technique do against a big punch. An example is Gassiev when he boxed (against Usyk). Everyone had high hopes for Gassiev, but, in my opinion, Gassiev had injuries at that moment. I also boxed with a serious injury (with Usyk). But I mean, you still need speed. 12 rounds may not be enough for you to land with a strong punch. Especially if there is a tactic, a theory of how to disassemble such punchers. It must be a smart team. Not only the athlete, but the team itself too. At that moment there was coach Lomachenko, a pretty smart guy.
– There were indignations from Beterbiev since the amateurs. They say let Usyk come down. And Usyk doesn’t say anything about it, he doesn’t remember these fights at all. What would you say if such a fight could take place in a cruiserweight, for example?
– It makes no sense to look at what was in cruiserweight, you need to look at what will be. If it happens, I think people will enjoy this fight with pleasure. So far, this fight is unrealistic.
Again, Arthur is very down to earth, very modest, so people will not be interested. Now it’s just to watch cool boxing – people don’t watch almost. Why? Because they need this hype. You must interest the people. And what was once there is of no interest to anyone. Now, if Arthur was loud, interesting, I mean behind the ring, then people would watch them. Here Alexander sometimes changes clothes in the Joker, in someone else. Here he knows how to lure. Not knowing English, he is still loved in England. Firstly, because he hit Joshua in the head, and secondly, because not knowing the language, he attracts with his charisma.
– Everything rests, one might say, in the show.
– At this moment yes. But don’t forget who Tyson was. He was very loud outside the ring. Just like Muhammad Ali. It wasn’t like they were humble boxers.
Beterbiev – Yard. Video knockout