There was little to separate Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur, and therefore not much decided by their trilogy fight.
On the scorecards Yarde won a decision, but it was close, with one margin of 115-113 and two of 116-112.
It means Yarde leads their three-fight series 2-1, and also that there is no need to run it back a fourth time.
When Yarde got in the ring on Saturday night, he sidestepped around it and brushed up against Arthur, but there were no similar signs of aggression in the opening couple of rounds, with neither taking any chances or risking anything early on. Yarde came out looking more alert and dangerous in the third. He landed a right to the body and another to the head, and a third crashed into the body. He also whipped in a left hook that the promoter Frank Warren applauded at ringside. But the action slowed as the round progressed.
Yarde was switched on and focused, but Arthur’s fundamentals and counter right stopped the Londoner from being reckless and from gambling with anything too big. There was not a great deal between them.
The crowd at Tottenham Hotspur’s soccer stadium was filling up ahead of the Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn main event, and Arthur was giving Yarde plenty to think about, firing two-fisted attacks into his body – although the Londoner landed a good right hand at the bell.
Arthur smiled to himself ahead of the seventh. His economic approach was not giving Yarde any opportunities to let his big, more flamboyant, shots go.
In the seventh, Yarde mixed up his attacks, following a double jab with a left hook, but Arthur fired straight back to fend off any momentum shift.
The eighth round was the best of the fight up to that point. Yarde closed the distance and worked Arthur over on the ropes, but left himself open for a cracking left hook.
Arthur’s trainer, Pat Barrett, urged him in the corner to stick to his boxing.
A ridge of swelling started to form over Yarde’s right eye, and while he enjoyed scoring with some shots when Arthur’s back was to the strands, the Manchester veteran was happy to box with Yarde, 27-3 (24 KOs), and stayed with him every step.
The 33 year olds tried to establish their jabs to open the 10th, but there were signs that Arthur was starting to get outworked, although his skills off the ropes kept it close and neither had a clear advantage in the 11th as they swapped shots downstairs and jostled for a superiority they had been unable to establish. But Yarde broke in midway through the session, and Arthur, 24-3 (16 KOs), was forced to withstand a difficult spell as Yarde flurried for the majority of what was left in the round.
“Back him up, finish strong, don’t let him breathe,” shouted Tunde Ajayi, in Yarde’s corner.
Arthur still had moments of slickness on the ropes in the last session, but Yarde’s volume took him through again.
In their previous meetings, Arthur had won a split decision over a listless Yarde. Emerging from the pandemic having lost four family members, including his father, Yarde was not present, but he made sure a year later he was, blasting the Mancunian into a fourth-round defeat. That victory, in 2021, was so emphatic that it seemed unlikely that these two would cross paths again, with so many other attractive options domestically – including Joshua Buatsi and Callum Smith.
Both fighters have previously lost at the top table. Yarde’s stoppage defeats by Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev were entertaining, courageous, but ultimately futile efforts. Arthur was well outpointed by Dmitry Bivol in December 2023.
Victory means Yarde will be on his way towards another significant fight later in 2025.
