Anthony Yarde vs. Emin Atra - 10 July 2021 (OFF)

[Ruthless-RKO]

Press Release

Light-Heavyweight rivals Lyndon Arthur and Anthony Yarde both return to action on Saturday July 10 at the Royal Albert Hall, ahead of a contracted rematch later this year.

Arthur narrowly outpointed Yarde in December and they will get a close up of each other once again on Queensberry’s summer special live on BT Sport.

In the main event, Arthur (18-0, 12 KOs) defends his WBO Inter-Continental title against Italian champion Davide Faraci (15-0, 7 KOs).

The Mancunian became the number one ranked contender for Joe Smith Jr’s WBO World title after his split decision win against Yarde and can afford no mistakes against Swiss born Faraci.

As well as his lofty WBO ranking, Arthur is ranked number four by the IBF and nine by the WBC. Artur Beterbiev holds the IBF and WBC belts.

KO King Yarde (20-2, 19 KOs) aims to be back with a bang when he meets unbeaten German Emin Atra (17-0, 12 KOs) in a non-title ten rounder.

Yarde had been due to meet Atra in April, but was sidelined because of a dental problem which forced the delay.

Yarde showed he belonged at world level when he came close to toppling then WBO World champion Sergey Kovalev in August 2019 before losing in the 11th round.

Ilford’s big hitter returned with wins against Diego Jair Ramirez and Dec Spelman before running into Arthur who he will be desperate to meet in a rematch.

Despite the setback against his bitter British rival, Yarde has remained in the world ratings and is ranked high by the IBF, WBC and WBO.

Promoter Frank W said: “Of course, the rematch is what everyone wants and it will happen at some stage.

“It is fantastic to get them on the same bill. Both of them have a point to prove and BT Sport viewers can look forward to them both impressing.

“Lyndon has leapt to number one with the WBO and will want to show the champion Joe Smith Jr how much of a threat he is.

“Anthony will still feel aggrieved that the decision went Lyndon’s way and has vowed never to trust judges again so he will go for it against Atra, for sure.”

Also on the bill, WBO ranked number one Super-Middleweight Zach Parker (20-0, 14 KO’s) returns with his opponent yet to be confirmed. Zach is looking to defend his position ahead of hopefully being made mandatory to the World title held by P4P King Canelo Alvarez.

WBO ranked number four Super-Featherweight, Archie Sharp (19-0, 9 KOs) faces Nicaragua’s Marcio Soza (21-6-2, 12 KOs) with the vacant WBO Global championship on the line.

They had been due to meet at the weekend, but a COVID-19 issue involving Soza meant a short postponement.

Warren added: “Archie is another Queensberry fighter high in the world rankings and providing he keeps winning and remains patient his chance will come.”

“Zach Parker was hugely impressive in his last fight, seeing off Vaughan Alexander – who hadn’t previously been finished – in just 2 rounds.

“I believe he has the power to knockout anyone in his division and look forward to another exciting performance from him.”

More big fights will be added to the bill in the coming days.

Tickets will go on pre-sale with the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow and on general sale Thursday.

Ticket prices as follows:

Grand Tier & Loggia boxes – £100
2nd Tier boxes – £75
Front Stalls – £75
Rear Stalls – £50
Rausing Circle – £50

[Ruthless-RKO]

Press Release | New Trainer added James Cook To Team

ANTHONY YARDE has added top London trainer James Cook to his team as he launches another World title run.

Former British and European champion Cook will join Tunde Ajayi and Ade Olayinka in the corner when the world ranked Light-Heavyweight returns to action next month.

It will be the Ilford KO King’s first contest since losing his Commonwealth crown on a split decision against Lyndon Arthur last December.

Loyal Yarde refused to make wholesale team changes, but added experienced Cook who had 35 professional fights in a career between 1982 and 1994.

Cook’s career included wins against Mark Kaylor, Michael Watson, Sam Storey and in Paris he beat 50-1-1 French star Pierre Frank Winterstein to become European champion.

Yarde who lost to Sergey Kovalev in a WBO title fight in August 2019 said: “James has been an extra pair of eyes, watching over certain things and giving advice when he can. It has been good.

“He is a very nice guy. I have known him since I first started boxing and I know more about him now.

“He was a serious fighter, very well respected, has very good energy and very good boxing knowledge.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Now he just needs to get rid of Tunde Ajayi..

[Bard of Boxrec]

Yarde’s last performance was so sluggish. He really should have got rid of Arthur. Not sure what to predict now from him, he seems to have lost it overnight.

[jameswilson]

Yarde’s last performance was so sluggish. He really should have got rid of Arthur. Not sure what to predict now from him, he seems to have lost it overnight.

I'd rather avoid Chris Eubank Jr comments but Yarde's workrate is what lets him down. He had so many rounds where he did bugger all, Arthur landed 5 or 6 decent jabs so he gave rounds up for very little. Granted Arthur had an injured hand or right arm but still.

[maverick23]

Yarde’s last performance was so sluggish. He really should have got rid of Arthur. Not sure what to predict now from him, he seems to have lost it overnight.

I'd rather avoid Chris Eubank Jr comments but Yarde's workrate is what lets him down. He had so many rounds where he did bugger all, Arthur landed 5 or 6 decent jabs so he gave rounds up for very little. Granted Arthur had an injured hand or right arm but still.

Agreed. He wasn’t helped by his trainer though who didn’t tell him about his opponent’s obvious injury or that he needed to increase his work rate as the rounds were close. Instead it was ‘Lions In The Camp’ rubbish and he gave away a fight that he could/should have won.

[emallini]

Not sure why people expect so much from Yarde. Are you that stupid that you bought the hype that was based on nothing? That is your fault for being clueless. Yarde has over achieved and Tunde has done a good job. Yarde is powerful and has some nice hands when the opponent is static, but it was always a uphill struggle considering the lack of grounding before he even met Tunde. This is not some blue chip prospect who has been ruined by a trainer, this is a powerful kid who walked into the gym late and ended up solid European level and making a good living. A success.

[maverick23]

Not sure why people expect so much from Yarde. Are you that stupid that you bought the hype that was based on nothing? That is your fault for being clueless. Yarde has over achieved and Tunde has done a good job. Yarde is powerful and has some nice hands when the opponent is static, but it was always a uphill struggle considering the lack of grounding before he even met Tunde. This is not some blue chip prospect who has been ruined by a trainer, this is a powerful kid who walked into the gym late and ended up solid European level and making a good living. A success.

You don’t think he’d have beaten a one-handed Arthur with some proper instruction or some impetus from the corner?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Press Release | Zach Parker, Dennis Mccann Opponents Confirmed For July 10

ZACH PARKER WILL take on the tough Uzbek Sherzod Khusanov at the Royal Albert Hall on July 10.

The WBO No.1 ranked super middleweight, 20-0, will put his WBO International title on the line against the former Olympian and World Championship finalist,who holds a record of 22-2-1 in the professional ranks.

Heading up the card, live on BT Sport, is Lyndon Arthur (18-0, 12 KOs) facing Italian champion Davide Faraci (15-0, 7 KOs). In the chief support, Anthony Yarde goes in with unbeaten German Emin Atra (17-0, 12 KOs).

Also announced, Archie Sharp will bid to add the WBO Global super featherweight title to his collection when he battles Marcio Soza (21-6-2, 12 KOs) in a fight that was originally scheduled for June.

Parker introduced himself to BT Sport viewers as a allegedly and Queensberry fighter with a brutal second round culling of the previously unstopped Vaughn Alexander in March and the 27-year-old is seeking to consolidate his position and top up his experience ahead of his forthcoming world title challenge.

Khusanov, 41, has numerous wins over unbeaten opponents and his two defeats came via the scorecards against the 40-0-1 Damian Jonak and the 19-0 Aslambek Idigov.

Prodigious bantamweight talent Dennis McCann will take his professional record into double figures by fighting the Tanzanian John Chuwa (20-4, 10 KOs).

McCann, 20, has clocked up the rounds over his last two fights – with two wins over eight rounds against Pedro Matos and Luis Moreno – and has been promising a return to his previous knockout form.

Chuwa, 23, known as ‘Ninja’, has lost on his two previous visits to Britain, being stopped by Tommy Frank in Sheffield and losing on points to Ross Murray in Glasgow. Prince Patel also holds a points win over Chuwa back in 2018.

Elsewhere on the card, 2016 Olympian Muhammad Ali (2-0) will have his third professional assignment against Lee Glover (11-4, 3 KOs), with lightweight KO-artist Sam Noakes (5-0, 5 KOs) and light heavyweight former Olympic Youth champion Karol Itauma (2-0, 1 KO) also featuring.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Wonder how ticket sales are getting on.

[maverick23]

Wonder how ticket sales are getting on.

I don’t think tickets are on sale yet. FW said the stacked card was on the assumption they’d be able to sell the place out. Unless they get an exemption for it being a test event then they’ll only sell 1,000 tickets or so. I’d expect an opponent/fight or two to not come through to save him a few quid.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Wonder how ticket sales are getting on.

I don’t think tickets are on sale yet. FW said the stacked card was on the assumption they’d be able to sell the place out. Unless they get an exemption for it being a test event then they’ll only sell 1,000 tickets or so. I’d expect an opponent/fight or two to not come through to save him a few quid.

in less than 2 weeks..

I'm sure 1000 tickets won't take long to sell out.

Not exactly Fight Camp prices are they.

[Deserter]

I would 100%. be going if I wasn't in Bristol for a family birthday. Gutted it's the same weekend.

[skanksta]

This is actually a good card
About time FWank

[maverick23]

This is actually a good card
About time FWank

Is it? There are some good fighters on there but had you heard of any/many of the opponents before they were announced?

[gregregegg]

Excluding heavyweights i would say this is as good a frank card as you could really hope for right now. He has basicaly used all his tallent on it though so might be a while till frank has another decent card... Imagine hypothetically if DDD and joyces next fights go to purse bids and frank loses... Imagine if eddie/ Dazn won the bids, frank would be on IFL tv rolling his shoulder out of its socket.
Wish frank well for competitions sake, for his fighters sake and so he can stay relevant enough to be interviewed, because i live for his bitterness.

[margaret thatcher]

most of the opponents have totally valueless records. typical overmatched imports with padded up records vs stiffs at home

some qualifications:

unlike most visitors on the card parker's opponent does have a good fairly recent win. but on the other hand he's 41, small for the weight, and lost 2x to a really mediocre guy. if parker wins, it's not going to add any extra value to his record. his opponent is old and no one recognizes his name. for a prospect who looks pretty good, this just seems like a bit of an inconsquential one

the italian who arthur is fighting i think is actually not that bad though when i looked into him. a prime aged guy with a good am background, who at least won as visiting fighter vs another prospect last time. i'd say it's arthurs 2nd best opponent and that his record is better than arthurs was prior to last fight.

[maverick23]

Excluding heavyweights i would say this is as good a frank card as you could really hope for right now. He has basicaly used all his tallent on it though so might be a while till frank has another decent card... Imagine hypothetically if DDD and joyces next fights go to purse bids and frank loses... Imagine if eddie/ Dazn won the bids, frank would be on IFL tv rolling his shoulder out of its socket.
Wish frank well for competitions sake, for his fighters sake and so he can stay relevant enough to be interviewed, because i live for his bitterness.

They’re all one sided fights on paper for worthless fringe titles. It’s not like they’re even fighting unknowns for proper belts. I’d understand it if they were fighting random Europeans for the EBU title.

Give me a good British title fight (like he did with Bentley/Cash) over this any day.

[maverick23]

most of the opponents have totally valueless records. typical overmatched imports with padded up records vs stiffs at home

some qualifications:

unlike most visitors on the card parker's opponent does have a good fairly recent win. but on the other hand he's 41, small for the weight, and lost 2x to a really mediocre guy. if parker wins, it's not going to add any extra value to his record. his opponent is old and no one recognizes his name. for a prospect who looks pretty good, this just seems like a bit of an inconsquential one

the italian who arthur is fighting i think is actually not that bad though when i looked into him. a prime aged guy with a good am background, who at least won as visiting fighter vs another prospect last time. i'd say it's arthurs 2nd best opponent and that his record is better than arthurs was prior to last fight.

Interesting what you say about Arthur’s opponent. I don’t particularly rate Arthur and whilst he deserved to beat Yarde I think if Yarde had stepped it up or received proper instruction in the corner then we would have likely won.

I saw Parker talking about challenging and beating Canelo a couple of weeks back. He needs better fights to even get him close to challenging for a world title. If Canelo vacates then Parker/Danny Jacobs will be ordered. The gulf between anyone Parker has fought and genuine world class is massive. It’s fine if he’s looking for a payday but FW used to be a master in matching fighters on the way up - now it seems like he just doesn’t care and wants to take his cut of the world title fight.

[THEBUTCH]

It's not a bad card and good that all 4 of those boxers are matched.

Things is....will all 4 matches hold up ? W@rren has one of the worst track records for cards falling apart by the time the show arrives. Maybe, W@rren is very unlucky, but it's a common theme.

[Ruthless-RKO]

It's not a bad card and good that all 4 of those boxers are matched.

Things is....will all 4 matches hold up ? W@rren has one of the worst track records for cards falling apart by the time the show arrives. Maybe, W@rren is very unlucky, but it's a common theme.

We're talking just less than 2 weeks.

Fingers crossed.

[THEBUTCH]

I factored the less-than-2-weeks-to-go into my post

[Ruthless-RKO]

I factored the less-than-2-weeks-to-go into my post

I know..

You just never know..

[maverick23]

I factored the less-than-2-weeks-to-go into my post

I know..

You just never know..

He even said himself it’ll be a struggle if they don’t get approved as a test event as their financials were based on a full house.

I’d be amazed if all 4 ‘main’ fights happen on the show next week.

[skanksta]

This is actually a good card
About time FWank

Is it? There are some good fighters on there but had you heard of any/many of the opponents before they were announced?

If I’d heard of the opponents it’d be PPV !