After concluding his own trilogy with Lyndon Arthur, Anthony Yarde expects to see a third fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Yarde defeated his fellow Briton at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London – on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jnr’s victory over Conor Benn – when he earned a unanimous decision via scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 116-112.
He had stopped Arthur in four rounds in 2021, 12 months after losing to him via split decision, and regardless of the emphatic nature of his victory in their rematch had spoken of his willingness to again fight Arthur – like Yarde 33 years old – as a consequence of his frustration at that defeat.
If, with victory, Yarde returned to the top of the light-heavyweight division, Bivol – the IBF, WBA and WBO champion – and his fellow Russian Beterbiev remain at the very top, and are expected to fight again for a third time later in 2025.
Bivol’s victory in February was perhaps more decisive than was Beterbiev’s in October, and at a time when Callum Smith, also of Britain, is expected to challenge David Benavidez for the WBC title, Yarde told BoxingScene: “There will be [a third fight] if Beterbiev wants it – it’s only right. They’ve got one apiece – I’m sure Beterbiev, especially ‘cause he’s coming off the loss, would want to get the trilogy in.
“[The second fight was] excellent. It was a high-speed, high-level, brutal chess match. It was more entertaining than the first fight. Very similar to the first fight; it was very close. You couldn’t argue with either person [winning] that first one.”
Yarde, in January 2023, gave the then-undefeated Beterbiev arguably his toughest test, before eventually being stopped.
