Yarde’s team have strictly adhered to their plan of saving him for the big nights and while it is hard to criticize their method given the lucrative, high profile career the light heavyweight has enjoyed, there has always been the feeling that he could have been so much more. 

At the Copper Box Arena on Saturday night, Ralfs Vilcans unexpectedly gave Yarde, 26-3 (24 KOs), the kind of fight he would have benefitted from years ago.

When Vilcans went down from the first right hand Yarde threw, in the opening seconds, it looked like the Latvian may go the same way as the other unknown fighters who arrived with flashy records but without the ability to trouble Yarde. 

Rather than accepting his fate, Vilkins bit down. There were no fireworks but his heart, fitness and willingness to hold his feet and punch in short snappy combinations caused Yarde more and more problems as the rounds passed. 

After 10 rounds, Yarde was awarded a wide unanimous decision victory but absorbed far more shots along the way than he would have anticipated. 

Was Vilcans better than the other second tier opponents Yarde has outclassed over the years? Did the Londoner allow the near constant talk about promotional conflict and a future fight with Joshua Buatsi distract him from the task at hand? Are the remarkable athletic gifts that the 33-year-old relies on beginning to wane?

As always with Yarde, we won’t get any answers until he fights a top level opponent. 

After the contest, an uncharacteristically uncomfortable looking Yarde admitted to Sky Sports that he had been given a much harder night’s work than he had expected.

“100 per cent. In my career, I’ve had very little experience in terms of doing the rounds. Usually, when I hit someone, the fight is done,” he said. “I think the worst thing that happened was me dropping him in the first round. I got content with, ‘Okay, I can knock out this guy at any time.’

“It’s all experience. That’s why in the last round I said, ‘Okay. Let me just box. I might not knock him out but let me box and get a different type of experience in.’”

At 33, Yarde won’t have gained as much from last night’s experience as he would have done five years ago.

At this stage of his career, the two-time world title challenger is what he is and is unlikely to add any new wrinkles to his game but Yarde is a reactive, explosive fighter and if he can roll directly into another training camp, we would, in all likelihood, see a sharper, better performance next time out. 

Therein lies the problem. Yarde needs a major fight next but finds his options diminishing and while a fight between he and Buatsi seemed very close just a few months ago, Yarde now finds himself in thrall to his London rival. 

Buatsi is the WBO Interim champion and next in line for a shot at the belt Artur Beterbiev successfully retained last weekend when he beat Dmitry Bivol to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion.

Buatsi may wait to see if Beterbiev and Bivol agree to a rematch before committing his signature to a contract for a high-risk fight with Yarde, who, unless the picture changes rapidly, could find himself on the sidelines again. 

“I’ll fight anybody. Literally, I’ll fight anybody,” Yarde said. “Styles make fights and I’ve fought at the top of the mountain. Sometimes, who is put in front of you might bring out the best version of you. This was a last-minute opponent so maybe, mentally, I got a bit complacent.”

“I’ll have to turn up,” he said when asked if he would take Buatsi next. “There’s so many names. Josh Buatsi. Dan Azeez. Craig Richards. There are so many names on this British scene. I’ve fought twice at world level. Beterbiev, before Bivol, I gave him his hardest fight. There’s fights out there but Josh Buatsi is one of the fights I want personally. There’s names.”

John Evans has contributed to a number of well-known publications and websites for over a decade. You can follow John on X @John_Evans79