Anthony Yarde names opponent he would happily fight next, if the price is right
There are strong rumours about a couple of potential next opponents for Anthony Yarde and now the man himself has named the person he would require a £2 million purse to fight.
32-year-old Yarde has had some huge nights already in his career. After building slowly to start with, he took some huge step-ups in quick fashion – firstly in 2019 to challenge then-fearsome WBO belt holder Sergey Kovalev, in Russia. He came unstuck after putting up a good show and pushing the former unified champion hard in his own back yard, but eventually got stopped when he was exhausted in the 11th round of his first ever 12-round contest.
The Hackney hero then pitted himself an ever bigger punching Russian when he challenged KO king Artur Beterbiev in January 2023, and was stopped in the eighth round of a fight of the year contender, again having lots of exciting moments of success in the bout.
In between times, he has fought Lyndon Arthur twice, firstly losing on points in a close contest in 2020, then winning the rematch decisively in the fourth round, almost exactly a year later.
Now he could face fellow Brit, Callum Smith, who was recently also stopped by the powerful Beterbiev, or Joshua Buatsi, who picked up a 12 round points win over Dan Azeez recently.
After a routine win on Saturday night, February 10, against an overmatched opponent in Marko Nikolic, taking just three rounds and tree knockdowns to record win no.25; the man himself recently spoke to NoSmokeSport about the possibility of fighting Craig Richards on the 5 v 5 Matchroom versus Queensbury show out in Saudi Arabia.
“We’ve said from early we wouldn’t fight each other unless it’s for millions,” Yarde begun. “Me and Craig, we actually know each other, so unless his promoter is paying him a million, and my promoter is paying me over two million, because I’ve got a bigger name, me and Craig ain’t fighting each other.”
In light of this, it seems like Buatsi and Smith remain the most likely next opponents, which is good news for boxing fans.