When Anthony Yarde walks to the ring at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening, his trainer Babatunde Ajayi will watch him with a sense of destiny at the front of his mind.
The WBO light-heavyweight title contest against David Benavidez, the defending champion, represents Yarde’s third – and potentially last – world-title fight, and yet it is perhaps also the first for which he has the necessary experience to win.
He was an 18-fight professional with minimal amateur experience when in 2019 he threatened to stop the heavy-handed Sergey Kovalev in a contest for the same title before fatigue contributed so much to him losing in the 11th round. When four years later he gave the fearsome, undefeated Artur Beterbiev what then represented his greatest test in defeat, as against Kovalev he then emerged with his reputation enhanced.
Ajayi, too, emerged with considerable credit that evening in 2023 on account of the well-judged intervention that rescued his admirably competitive fighter from further punishment against one of the most dangerous punchers in light-heavyweight history. Ajayi’s bravado, when he was a less experienced trainer and Yarde a less experienced fighter, drew criticism of his methods, but on Saturday, against the 28-year-old Benavidez, they have been presented with a chance to demonstrate not only the experience they have gained but the lessons they have learned.
Yarde, 34, improved after his defeat by Kovalev in the same way that he improved when, having been the favourite, he lost to Lyndon Arthur the following year. It has been suggested on account of how destructive a fighter Beterbiev is that since the third of his defeats he is showing signs of decline, but it is transparent that neither Yarde nor Ajayi subscribes to that belief, and instead are convinced that against Benavidez, because of everything they have endured together, Yarde will finally be in the right place at the right time.
It was at the start of July when the date with Benavidez was confirmed, and when Yarde and Ajayi were mourning the loss to bladder cancer of James Cook, who had come to assist in Yarde’s preparations to fight. Even with Cook’s absence – and partly because of the reality that his influence persists – they have achieved a sense of conviction absent ahead of the dates with Kovalev and Beterbiev, and recognise that unlike on those two occasions, it will be considerably more difficult to recover from defeat.
“Experience,” explains Ajayi to BoxingScene, “is definitely healthy – you have to have it. But we’re very calm. It’s a composure and an excitement at the same time. I was saying the other day, ‘This don’t feel like the previous two’. We’ve been there before. We know what this big-fight circus is all about; we know what it’s like to be underdogs; both attempts we was not going in as the favourites. This one, everyone’s going on like this guy is like a Beterbiev with 19 fights and 19 KOs. That’s not the case.
“Beterbiev, nobody was queuing up to fight him before Ant proved to everyone that this guy’s a human being. These guys ultimately had to use their experience. They couldn’t just rush forward into a puncher like Ant, and experience is something you can’t buy, borrow or pretend to have.
“[Benavidez is] the most challenging [of the three world-title fights], because youth is a thing you can’t replace – [though] he’s not young, young, and he’s been in the game since he was young, sparring with Kelly Pavlik at the age of 15, sparring with Gennadiy Golovkin. So, no, it’s certainly not the easiest, so when we win, and when there’s a huge upset in Saudi, everybody will have to give the respect where it’s due.
“It just feels right. It just feels right. It doesn’t mean that the anticipation, the jitteryness, is not there, but it just feels like it wasn’t forced. It doesn’t feel forced. It just came about, based on other people’s refusals; based on them aksing me. [Queensberry Promotions’] George Warren aksed me, we was talking about Ant’s next fight – the Benavidez fight. ‘What the fuck would we want to fight him for? Let him fight somebody else. He’s a young champion – he can fucking fight anyone. We’re on a route, and I’m sure we’ll get to him…’, but just like with Joel [Kodua’s] last fight, they kept on aksing me. ‘Come on – take this fight.’
“I’m like ‘I don’t really want this fight for Joel – he’s just starting his career’. Kept on pressuring us; kept on pressuring us. Then I went to Joel, ‘They keep on pressuring about this kid – what you think?’. Joel said ‘Make the fight’. The exact same thing happened to Ant. It’s the exact same thing, and obviously Joel, stopping his fighter in the 10th and final round… I just feel like the stars seem to be aligning and it could be our time; I’m hoping it’s our time. One thing I will say is that there’s no stone left that ain’t been lifted up, spun around, kicked, fly-kicked and everything. We’re ready.”
Saturday’s fight is not only Yarde’s first since Cook’s death, it is the first for which he will have spent an entire training camp with the respected strength and conditioner Ruben Tabares, once so proven at maximising the explosive athleticism of, among others, George Groves and David Haye. That Yarde is similarly naturally athletic – and potentially equally gifted based on his remarkable progress in 30 fights despite so little amateur experience – could prove significant against the durable nature of opponent that Benavidez represents. Russ Anber, who worked Beterbiev’s corner the night of the fight with Yarde, revealed immediately afterwards that Yarde had forced Beterbiev into “fifth gear” much earlier than they had planned; on Saturday Yarde cannot hope to beat Benavidez by fighting Benavidez’s fight, he has to force Benavidez to fight his.
“His engine – he seems to have a good engine, and his energy seems to be the thing that, ultimately, wears people down,” Ajayi said. “I’ve dealt with this before, at a lower level at Joel’s last fight. They called his last [opponent] ‘The Engine’. ‘This guy don’t get tired.’ Joel matched him and stopped him. Same with [in April, Lyndon] Arthur – they thought we was gonna get tired. We matched him and out-punched him, and if you look at the stats for light heavyweights in the 10th, 12th round, just Anthony’s last fight, those are tremendous stats – stats Benavidez has not hit at light heavyweight yet.
“[He’s a] very good fighter. Very good fighter. He’s feared – like both of our world-title challenges. The guy’s feared. We’ve heard the sparring with [Dmitry] Bivol; dropping Bivol in sparring. You never know if this stuff’s true, but I believe it. If someone’s dropped you in sparring, you’re the champ, you don’t want to give that guy a chance, and this is another reason I don’t like sparring champions or potential guys you’re going to face, ‘cause when it’s time to fight you could end up waiting forever. We hear about that.
“When you’re that good, you actually only have your training to count on. People don’t wanna spar you, so you’re the one lacking experience in getting proper work to prepare yourself for somebody else. He’s a brilliant fighter; his dad [Jose Snr] has done a tremendous job with David and with Jose.
“[But] he loves to fight too much, and again, he’s going to get hit by a real light heavyweight. He’s gonna get hit by a real light heavyweight, and we’ll see what time it is when we see him on the floor [laughs]. That’s why the fight just excites me. Deal with that.
“Anthony’s just got to be the best version of himself. All the skill that we’ve seen over the years; all the power; all the composure, it has to come down to that. That’s how he beats him. Just being the best; everything he’s done over the years, and we need a bit of luck. Is that luck? Is that God? Is that the universe? It’s the same thing. It ain’t third time lucky. I hate people saying that. Luck is when it happens once. When it happens twice, nah. To get to the same position three times, that ain’t luck. It’s the third time of asking."
Ajayi in June led Joel Kodua to the southern area welterweight title, and a week after what he sees as Yarde’s date with destiny he will lead Kodua into a contest with Bobby Dalton with the English title at 147lbs. For every way in which Ajayi and Yarde clash, as a three they and Kodua are noticeably close – perhaps particularly so after Cook’s death – and Ajayi is therefore particularly selective about who is recruited to join them in camp.
Tabares’ experience and expertise as a conditioner was the start of the appeal to Ajayi, but a shared sense of spirituality and, therefore, an instinct that he would enhance the working environment the trainer favours has quickly nurtured between them a sense of trust.
“Ruben worked wonders with Ant for the Arthur fight, which was a key thing, because I knew from the press conference, all along, they probably thought Ant was going to gas out,” he said. “My friend told me about Ruben years ago; he was working with David Haye when he had the heavyweight title. Look at these [other fighters’] teams – they’ve got like 20 people; 30 people. It’s just me and Ant. We’ve got to this level on our own.
“I used to have four trainers with me. On fight night we’ll have the cut man; the assistant. But I’m the one who’s had to carry all of this on my own, with Ant. Ant is obviously the main person here. I always credit Ant, to do what he has done in the sport, is absolutely incredible, and having Ruben Tabares has just made things even better.
“Ruben’s a very spiritual man as well. That’s the only way you can get round me – I’m dealing with a certain energy. I’ve always dealt with a certain energy. I don’t want no negativity around me; I don’t even want no bad conversation around me, hence we’ve only got three of us in this thing, so having Ruben now, and Anthony having someone to talk to, other than me always preaching – that’s why me and him knock heads so much, because we’re together so much and we’ve been through so much. It’s good when he can break away and have a conversation on his own and grow that way as well. Having Ruben’s been a blessing.
“The reason why it’s spiritual is ‘cause you don’t really talk about it. It’s something you feel within yourself; it’s something that you see has happened, that you didn’t plan, but you had the thought. That’s real spirituality. When you’re announcing things, that’s not spirituality, ‘cause you’re talking it into existence.
“What it means for me is everything I’ve got in my heart and mind becomes a reality. That’s real spirituality. That’s two people doing the same thing, saying the same thing, in two different places. It might not even be the same side of planet earth, but it’s the same thing – that’s being spiritually connected to somebody. Both of you are on the right frequency; on the right wavelength, and it’s just calm. It’s a place of composure and calm and I can feel it with Ruben and I’m sure Ant wouldn’t be so giving of himself if he couldn’t feel the same. It’s how we all are in our small-knit team – very spiritual.
“It’s been about the addition, but not rushing to the addition. James Cook, I had to sit down and think about it, and then ask Spencer Fearon to make the call, and that happened. Same thing with Ruben. I’ve known him; seen him in action for years, and then me and Ant went to Manchester and then I said to Ant ‘What do you think about this guy? Maybe this is it’. Spoke to the other team members; made the call; met Ruben in Victoria. Stats don’t lie, right? Ant threw more punches in the 11th round of the last fight than he’s ever thrown in any 11th round of a fight. That’s Ruben. You’ve got to credit Ruben for that, and that’s only four weeks. We’ve been with Ruben now – this is the second fight – a while and Ant just keeps on getting better, stronger, faster. It’s all good.
“Ruben was there when James was there – they worked together. James can never be replaced. That’s just the thick and thin of it. I think about him every day; I think about him all the time; we’ve only had one fight without him; Joel became a champion, and that was the first fight we’ve had without James, and that fight was dedicated to James. Now we’re on to the next one, and James will be with us in this fight, 1,000,000 per cent. It just can’t be no other way. He’s there. He’s going to be in Saudi Arabia with us. I can feel it. I’m excited. I’ve just learned not to announce things.”
The change in Ajayi he mentions is one he describes as “spiritual growth”, and on the eve of a promotion on which Bill Haney and Brian Norman Snr – the fathers and trainers of their sons Devin and Brian Jnr – have been predictably particularly vocal, the extent to which he has mellowed almost appears stark.
It is tempting to question whether he had been humbled by the criticism he and Yarde have previously been subjected to – particularly in the aftermath of Arthur inflicting so unexpected a defeat – but Ajayi can describe a sense of introspection those same criticisms would not have accounted for and which contributed to the recruitment of not only Tabares, but Cook, and similarly the independence he and Yarde committed to when under pressure to agree to promotional terms they didn’t want when pursuing Joshua Buatsi in the summer of 2024.
“One thing James brought me is calmness,” he said. “I’m just a passionate person – loyal. I get excited very quickly, which is why us two work. Ant’s always been the person – I’ve had to learn to be calm. I don’t want to be too calm. Ant is too calm for me, for my liking. I’m like ‘Come on, mate, we gotta get going’. But I’ve learned from Ant just as much as I’ve learned from James Cook. Experience matters. It really does. Age matters. It really does calm you down.
“What you realise after many years is that ain’t much changed. Things don’t change. The technology might be new, [but] it’s the same thing. You get up; go to work; you hit hard times; you hit low times. But ultimately, if you’re not giving up, you just keep going, and you don’t – you say these things because you want everyone to believe you. Experience don’t do that. You’re just like, ‘Alright, cool’. That’s what it was for the last fight. ‘Alright, cool – we’ll see what’s gonna happen on the night’, and I feel that even more so, ‘cause I hear the way my man’s talking. But know for sure this is going to be a fight.
“You can’t be the same person you were after a new experience. Sometimes, it’s about finding out whether the experience was for the best or for the worst, but you only know when you get in there. It’s about staying focused and true to yourself. It’s always a challenge. It’s always a challenge. I just don’t have time to listen to people – I actually don’t know what’s going on. People always say to me ‘Did you see that?’. I ain’t seen nothing. I’m too busy trying to study, and what have you, and be around my man.
“You think that everybody is thinking the same way you’re thinking, and it’s always a tough lesson when you have to realise that the reason why you feel like that is for a reason. It’s not for everybody to feel like that. It’s your own gift. You stay humble with it. You just learn to be calm and not announce what I’m feeling, but the feeling is real. As each day gets closer I just feel ‘It’s our time; it’s our time’, regardless of what the press say and regardless of what the boxing fans say and regardless of what anyone says. If that one force is with us, which I believe it is going to be with us, November 22nd, ain’t no one can do anything about it.
“We’re always in the gym anyway. Myself and Ant, we’re always focused, but it’s the final part. Everybody’s attitude just starts changing. I start coming in, not smiling at nobody; Ant starts shouting; snapping at me. That’s a very good sign for me. That’s when I know that the fight’s around the corner; Ant’s really getting that mentality. ‘Alright, cool, I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do.’ It’s great, and it’s the first time we’ve ever had a chance to prepare, ‘cause when things happen and there’s room for doubt and excuses, you’ll always say that. ‘Maybe if I had this; maybe if I had that; this happened; that happened’, but this is the first time we’ve had an opportunity to really structure our training.
“We’ve always been like that. Myself and Ant have always been like that. It’s just, you know, we want it so bad, and that fire has never changed. That’s what people need to be worried about – it’s never changed.
“When things happen in life, it’s so easy to point the finger, but what’s made me and Ant very unique in the sport of boxing is there’s been no finger-pointing. ‘Alright, cool – this is the area we need to improve in, let’s bring this person in; let’s implement that’, and at the end of the day it’s our story; people are never gonna understand why you sacrificed so much and why you do things different to the way most people done. But that’s their journey; our journey has gone the way it has.
“I always wonder how trainers have five, six, seven fighters. I’ve got two champions, and those two champions zap me [on my phone]. I’ve tried it; I’ve had a gym full of 15 fighters and stuff like that, but I have two champions under the same roof, training every day; both have their own ego; it would be more challenging if there was more people around I had to look at at different levels.
“Joel just became a champion but as everyone knows, I trained him with a champion’s mindset from the start. For Ant, it’s another reality I’ve always told him: ‘You’re built different. You ain’t like other people.’ He’s not like other individuals; he’s a very, very special, unique character. I don’t know how long [before] we’re gonna see another person like A-Y. Beautiful character, full of energy, and just willing to do what others are not.
“This is going to be a fight. This is going to be a fight. I’ve only ever seen Ant like this once, and that’s for the Lyndon Arthur rematch [in 2021, a fourth-round stoppage victory], where people are mocking him online and everything.
“He didn’t even say nothing to me, but inside of him is the volcano I’ve always known has been there, and that’s what we’re going to see, November 22nd.
“This is going to be a firecracker.”
