Anthony Yarde Calls For A Big Showdown With Joshua Buatsi In An all-British..

Anthony Yarde recently knocked out Ralfs Vilcans in ten seconds before fighting his way to a points victory. Joshua Buatsi is the current challenger for the world title.

With the first punch of their light-heavyweight fight, Yarde knocked Vilcans down.

Despite a disappointing comeback victory over Ralfs Vilcans on Saturday, he reiterated his calls for an all-British fight with Joshua Buatsi after the fight.

The Londoner, who has fought Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev for world titles, dropped his opponent in the first ten seconds at the Copper Box but won by points in his first fight in eight months.

Yarde had hoped to make a statement in advance of a fight with Buatsi, possibly for the WBO interim title, next year. However, he insists that he still expects to fight in 2025 in big fights.

“I’ve fought at the top of the mountain. Sometimes who is put in front of you might bring out the best version of you.

“This is a last-minute opponent. Maybe mentally I got a bit complacent here, but I would have to turn up for Buatsi.

“It’s not just Joshua Buatsi, there’s Dan Azeez, Craig Richards, so many names in this British scene”.

“I’ve fought twice at world level. Before [Dmitry] Bivol I gave [Artur] Beterbiev his hardest fight. There’s fights out there, but Josh Buatsi is one of the fights I want personally.”

He believes that the win in the first round led him to overestimate his abilities because only one of his previous 25 victories had been sustained.

He explained,

“In my career I’ve had very little experience of doing long rounds. Usually when I hit someone the fight is done. The worst thing that could have happened was me dropping him in the first round. Then I got content that I could knock out this guy”.

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“It’s all experience. In the last round I said, ‘let me just box. I might not knock him out, but let me box and get a different kind of experience.”

When queried as to whether the performance made him more confident of beating Yarde he answered: “I was confident before that fight.

“He said himself if he’s boxing Buatsi he will have to show up. I’m not going to start chatting rubbish about him and how he performed.

“The guy got put down in the first round and should not have seen past round three in my opinion.”