Anthony Yarde willingly spoke, beyond his promotional obligations, the day in July that his appealing WBO light-heavyweight title fight with David Benavidez was officially announced.
He spoke just as willingly, again beyond his promotional obligations, in October, shortly before his departure from London to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for what could prove his defining night.
The 34-year-old, inevitably given that he had trained intensely for in the region of eight hours the previous day, first appeared weary on the latter occasion at the Dennis & Dyer Boxing Academy in Loughton, England.
He had spoken to BoxingScene in July, when he was still mourning the loss to bladder cancer of his assistant trainer James Cook MBE, flown to New York for the first press conference for his fight on November 22 at the ANB Arena with Benavidez, hosted the media midway through his preparations for the defending champion, and then, the day after one of his most gruelling training sessions, hosted BoxingScene again.
That he was aware that he still had the most intense fight-week build-up of his career to come perhaps contributed to that weariness, and yet, in the same way that warming up at the gym that day led to him demonstrating his explosive athleticism when throwing the combinations his trainer Babatunde Ajayi demanded of him, from behind his sunglasses and while sipping on an early-morning coffee his enthused anticipation of his date with destiny soon became increasingly clear.
“I’m excited, man – can you tell?” he asked BoxingScene with the same contagious laugh so regularly seen when he is far from the eve of battle. “The reason I get excited over these things is because this is the reason I got into boxing – fighting at the top of the world. David Benavidez is on the pound-for-pound boxing list; that’s not just as a world champion, that’s amongst all the world champions in all the weight classes. He’s on that list.
“All that I see is I beat David Benavidez, my name’s floating in that area as well. That’s legacy; that’s greatness, and that’s opportunity, so I’m always going to be excited at that opportunity. Always.”
It is that same excitement and energy that could be detected when Yarde welcomed, immediately after his stoppage of Marko Nikolic in February 2024, his rival Joshua Buatsi ringside to discuss the prospect of them fighting; with which Yarde sometimes warmly greets those he knows by shadowboxing their figures; with which he responds to music, and with which he made himself available to the media and fights fans on the day in 2023 of Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko, the undisputed lightweight title fight that partly tempted him to travel to Las Vegas to attend.
The need to be fully focused on his preparations for the third – and potentially final – world-title fight of his career contributes to the existence of a considerably more disciplined figure, but if Yarde were to confine himself to an isolated training camp, particularly for so lengthy a fight build-up, instead of becoming even better prepared for battle his energy levels would likely just be drained.
He has rotated between gyms in the Essex areas of Loughton and Ilford – where he lives – and Victoria, in the middle of London’s bright lights. The latter has forced him to use public transport, where he has encountered those aware of who he is – and who regardless of their intentions often energised him again.
“It’s been great,” he explained. “I’ve been going to different places; getting access to different equipment. This bag [nods] weighs something like 140kgs. It’s been different environments; different training equipment. But the same time with the added Ruben Tabares [my new strength and conditioning coach].
“It’s been keeping me fresh. I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve been taking the train to Victoria, which is different – takes a little break away from the driving – and sometimes, when you do things like go on the train, it brings you back to reality, and you get to see what’s going on in the world. If you’re in a car, you’re in your own world – it’s different. When you’re out on public transport and you see people going to work; coming from work, it’s motivating. It reminds me of where I’m at.
“Being on public transport you get recognised a lot; they talk about the fight so it keeps the fight in the front of my mind. Not that it’s not anyway, but it keeps it in the front of my mind. People have their opinions, which is always going to be the case, and then, yeah, a lot of support also – it’s been good.
“It’s recognition – how big the fight actually is. Everyone knows about it, and I thought it was announced very early and they were gonna intensify the promotion for the fight, but a lot of people already know about it; a lot of people are tuning in; messaging me saying they’ve got their tickets already; they’ve booked their flights, etcetera, so it’s exciting.
“Some people go away for training camp in order to focus; some people go to high altitude places; because I haven’t done that throughout my career I’ve decided to just add to my training regimen, do it here, and be the best version of myself here. I didn’t want to risk anything by going away. Sometimes people can get altitude sickness, and little things like that – access to the right foods – I just wanted to do it here.
“When you try new things it’s always a risk. You don’t know how your body’s going to react to it; you don’t know how you’re going to react to it mentally; emotionally. My career has been fantastic, so I’ve tweaked and changed little things I feel needed to be changed. Location, I don’t think was one of them. A lot of the time people travel away from home to be able to focus; I focus the most here, doing the right things at home; eating the right things. When you’re away, from my experience, sometimes you have to adapt even to food. I’ve been happy here.”
Yarde and Ajayi speak openly about being undermined by their inexperience when in 2019 they travelled to Russia to challenge Sergey Kovalev – incidentally then also defending the WBO title – and yet he regardless sufficiently hurt the Russian that he threatened to stop him and almost won.
When he challenged Kovalev’s even more heavy-handed compatriot Artur Beterbiev in 2023 in a fight for the IBF, WBO and WBC titles, the benefits of that experience could be seen both in the increased maturity of Yarde’s impressive performance and the way Ajayi intervened to rescue him from further punishment in the eighth round.
Since then the prospect of fighting Buatsi has arisen without ever coming to fruition, but Yarde, without making any significant statements as a professional, has demonstrated improving footwork in the process of recording four further wins.
The contest with the 28-year-old Benavidez will be the 31st of both of their professional careers. Unlike Benavidez, however, Yarde was a latecomer to boxing and one with minimal amateur experience, making his ability to compete with Kovalev and Beterbiev a demonstration of remarkable natural talent, and the reality of his confronting Benavidez – a fighter so far lacking the educated footwork of Kovalev and Beterbiev – cause for particular intrigue.
Yarde’s improvement under the influence of the late Cook, similarly, represents cause for concern, but the recruitment of the experienced strength and conditioner Ruben Tabares – one who once maximised the explosive abilities of, among others, George Groves and David Haye – potentially presents the Englishman with the ability to marry his natural, explosive athleticism with the world-level experience gained against Kovalev and Beterbiev and the nurturing of Ajayi and Cook.
“I worked with him for my last fight [the 12-round decision over Lyndon Arthur in May] but it was only three weeks, so he didn’t really do too much; he didn’t know how it affected my body or whatever, but this has been a full training camp, adding a strength and conditioning coach,” he said. “Everyone knows me and Tunde’s story; we’re both inexperienced at world level, and we’re just tweaking things and getting better; learning from past experiences, and it’s shown in my performances, but it’s about getting the win now. In my position it’s always been a big ask; I’ve always been the underdog in these world-title fights, but for the legacy I want, that’s the best way.
“I’ve probably had two or three not so great performances, and that’s a good ratio. Every time I’m in a big fight I perform – it’s just stepping over that line. Everyone agrees, it’s always been due to a lack of experience. We’ve got that now, and I’m looking to capitalise.
“I don’t know why I thrive under [being the underdog] so much – maybe it’s the pressure thing. It takes off a lot of pressure. Some people it gives a lot of pressure. The only pressure is where you care what other people think. If I’m the heavy underdog, there’s a massive uproar when I win. When you’re, on paper, meant to win, regardless of how it looks in terms of experience, it’s never as satisfying. Maybe I’m just waiting to actually experience that.
“[Working with Tabares has brought a] lot of pain. I feel, genuinely, like when I first started boxing. I feel strong; very, very strong. An attribute I had when I started was there was no one as explosive or as quick as me, so I’m more focused on learning boxing. With that, over the years, I’ve realised that some of my attributes – I’ve shied away from them, whether that was because of certain fights it didn’t work, but I’ve trained to maximise my natural attributes, and on top of that, being as skilful as possible.
“I’ve been training for the fight since it got announced; preparing my body, mentally, physically. That’s all I can do. I’ve just prepared for the fight and been doing that since it got announced. The closer you get to the fight, we’ve tried to, as they call it, peak, and become more intentional with the strategies of the training.
“[I’ll have] 12 days out there acclimatising and getting ready. Being out there early enough, you get more used to the climate; how things are done out there. There’s no rush. People might see it a different way – ‘You don’t want to be out there too long; you wanna stay here; you want access to the things you need’ – for me it’s just being out there, and adapting whilst I’m out there.
“[Me and Ajayi are] always together. That’s the point I’m making. We’re always together; training, all the time. If I’m not out of the country, or I’m not on holiday, I’m in the gym training. We spoke about this before, in terms of experience; in terms of being the best. On paper we’re not the best yet, so we gotta work. If you’re not training and trying to perfect certain things and get better in certain areas, you don’t do very well in this sport.
“Everyone does this thing where the talk and say ‘I’m so much better now’ – they’re kind of making excuses for why they didn’t win before. Each fight in my career I feel like I’m getting better. That’s due to experience. Early in my career I used to say the more time I spend in the ring the better I’m going to get; you get used to certain atmospheres; you get used to certain scenarios; different opponents; different looks, and with a person that’s a prospect or a high-performing athlete, that’s always what makes the difference. When you see people grow throughout their careers – Gervonta Davis; Devin Haney – you see them when they’re young and how they’re solid professionals now, and that comes with experience.”
It is tempting to compare the fighter Yarde is in 2025 with the fighter he was in 2019 and 2023 and to conclude that unless – as with numerous others – the fearsome Beterbiev took the best out of him when they shared the ring in January 2023, Saturday’s fight with Benavidez represents, for Yarde, the kindest match-up of the three. The Benavidez of 2025 is no doubt superior to what remained of Kovalev in 2019, but in 2019 Yarde was particularly raw and negotiating the intimidating challenge of travelling to Russia in only his 19th fight.
Regardless of the preference of those leading Saturday’s promotion for the nature of victory that would transform Benavidez into one of the world’s leading fighters – and an explosive stoppage from Yarde, complemented with the charisma and marketability that had once made him such an asset to Queensberry Promotions and BT Sport, could prove similarly transformative – Benavidez neither has home advantage nor superior experience at light heavyweight. His victory in February over David Morrell surpasses any that Yarde has recorded, but his futile pursuit of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez means that he has fought only twice at 175lbs. Yarde, regardless – and it should not be overlooked that he and Ajayi have a shared sense of spirituality – dismisses the prospect that Benavidez is an easier fight than Kovalev or Beterbiev proved to be.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “With things like that you only know once the fight happens. I could go out there and knock out David Benavidez in the first round, and it would shock the world, but that’s boxing. It takes one punch; the right move at the right time. That’s just boxing for you. Some people call that experience; some people say ‘That was just his time’. That’s just the way my brain works. In training you do the best you can do, go out there, and try and capture the world.
“He’s a top three light heavyweight, but he’s on the pound-for-pound list. As a light heavyweight, I’d rank him top three, definitely. We’ll only find out once I fight him [how good he actually is]. I can only give a clear indication of how good I think he is once we’ve fought.
“I can only tell you that once we’ve fought, because against other opponents it’s been a combination of punches; active pressure. He’s had two or three fights at light heavyweight now, so we’ll see. He definitely hasn’t been in there with anyone who hits like me, so we’ll see how he reacts and how it pans out. On November 22nd we’ll see [his weaknesses], too.
“I think the Canelo fight was more for [Benavidez’s] publicity; legacy. ‘Cause [Terence] Crawford beat Canelo, Crawford’s number one everywhere, so it would have been the same for him. Canelo’s that kind of name. Veteran; a great hall of famer; Canelo’s on that list, so when you’re that person – like when everyone wanted to fight Floyd [Mayweather] – everyone wants to fight you.
“The reason he’s at light heavyweight is ‘cause it’s a lot easier on his body; I’m wider than him but he’s taller than me and got a bigger head. He’s a big guy. There’s videos floating around of him as a teenager and he was big – he was fat – and still quite tall, so he’s got the type of body where he could easily go to cruiserweight.”
The sense of enthusiasm again grew when Yarde started to compare his and his opponent’s physiques.
“Tune in 22nd November,” he continued, “and witness a great event.”
