Artur Beterbiev vs. Anthony Yarde | BT Sport - 28 January 2023

[maverick23]

The 02 will be sold out for the fight. Yarde does big no’s on BT, but obviously hasn’t been on PPV yet so it’s hard to gauge what it would do. It will definitely be a PPV though, there’s little doubt about it in my mind. Yes, Arum will kick in a few quid, but there no way BT are looking to cover the costs out of their budget - they would be looking to pass this onto the the public unfortunately.

Perhaps there’s an obvious example I’m missing, but I can’t recall the last time a fight of this size/purse costs being on standard Sky / BT?

With what’s going on, the promoters will probably have lost the ability to sell rights fees to Russia aswell, so that’s less potential international money,

I would imagine the sales target would be 100-150k to make it work, and they have the promotional material to market the fight with the fighters involved.

You might be right re: the O2 selling it. There’s just little to base that on given how Yarde has sold in the past. A bit like Joe Joyce when they matched him with Parker.

What are the BT rating stats that show Yarde does big numbers?

Re: similar size fights, I’d probably the last one that springs to mind is perhaps Taylor vs Catterall. Also Marshall/Shields were both supposedly paid 7 figures each.

If 100k-150k is the aim then all that tells me is that it’s not big enough to be PPV.

Beterbiev- Yarde is a much bigger commercial fight than Taylor - Catteral. Probably costs more than double in purse as well, but I get the comparison.

I will see if I can find them, but I did see some of the ratings somewhere a while ago. From memory; Kovalev - Yarde did a huge no for BT as you can imagine. I think the first Arthur fight was second only to Dubois-Joyce in the highest rated subscription TV fight that year. Arthur 2 was up there too and I think it was only beaten by a Sky fight which may also have been on Sky mix, so basically it was freeview.

I don’t see why/how it’s a much bigger commercial fight. If it sells out the O2 then fair enough but if Beterbiev’s been getting less than $1m for his last mandatory and Yarde’s never sold much at the box office then why should it?

I’d bet Taylor received $1-$2m for Catterall and Jack would have been paid well due to his MTK ties.

Just had a quick look re: ratings and they seem to back up what Ruthless was saying. 81,000 for the Spelman fight and 112,000 for the first Arthur fight so around the 100,000 mark. Benn vs Formella from a similar timeframe averaged just under 200,000 on Sky. I don’t put loads of credence in BARB stats but directionally they’re normally fair.

I’m not saying it’s a bad fight. Far from it. I just think it’s a risk going PPV and when someone’s best win is at commonwealth title level and they’ve barely sold 5,000 tickets.

[Manchester Hitman]

You might be right re: the O2 selling it. There’s just little to base that on given how Yarde has sold in the past. A bit like Joe Joyce when they matched him with Parker.

What are the BT rating stats that show Yarde does big numbers?

Re: similar size fights, I’d probably the last one that springs to mind is perhaps Taylor vs Catterall. Also Marshall/Shields were both supposedly paid 7 figures each.

If 100k-150k is the aim then all that tells me is that it’s not big enough to be PPV.

Beterbiev- Yarde is a much bigger commercial fight than Taylor - Catteral. Probably costs more than double in purse as well, but I get the comparison.

I will see if I can find them, but I did see some of the ratings somewhere a while ago. From memory; Kovalev - Yarde did a huge no for BT as you can imagine. I think the first Arthur fight was second only to Dubois-Joyce in the highest rated subscription TV fight that year. Arthur 2 was up there too and I think it was only beaten by a Sky fight which may also have been on Sky mix, so basically it was freeview.

I don’t see why/how it’s a much bigger commercial fight. If it sells out the O2 then fair enough but if Beterbiev’s been getting less than $1m for his last mandatory and Yarde’s never sold much at the box office then why should it?

I’d bet Taylor received $1-$2m for Catterall and Jack would have been paid well due to his MTK ties.

Just had a quick look re: ratings and they seem to back up what Ruthless was saying. 81,000 for the Spelman fight and 112,000 for the first Arthur fight so around the 100,000 mark. Benn vs Formella from a similar timeframe averaged just under 200,000 on Sky. I don’t put loads of credence in BARB stats but directionally they’re normally fair.

I’m not saying it’s a bad fight. Far from it. I just think it’s a risk going PPV and when someone’s best win is at commonwealth title level and they’ve barely sold 5,000 tickets.

PPV fight in London already puts it in a different category to Taylor - Catterall commercially.
Josh’s ratings on Sky were quite low as well and the one fight he did under Frank/BT also had a poor viewership. That’s probably the reason why neither platform were interested in picking up the Ramirez unification IMO.

Not sure about Taylor, but I would be surprised and happy for Catterall If he got more than $300k.

Problem with comparing those ratings is that Sky is obviously a much bigger platform.

I see your point about the risk factor, but Talksport etc will be all over the fight assuming it gets announced and I really think there will be a huge interest in seeing this Russian (Canadian to keep the government quiet) bomber coming over to defend his 3 belts.

[margaret thatcher]

yarde vs bert is THE fight in the division

[watsupdoc87]

Bert will kill yarde

[THEBUTCH]

God I'd love to see Beterbiev v Bivol for the undisputed world title

[forcefraser]

Beterbiev will beat Yarde like a dog. He wont last 3 rounds

[DrDuke]

Yeah, hopefully this matchup will be the last tune-up for the undisputed championship, but you can't be sure with all those nego-sh!t-ations.

[Monzon83]

Yarde a boxer whose best win is Lyndon Arthur (who beat him first) has no business being anywhere near Beterbiev.

Joe Smith would batter Anthony Yarde. And Beterbiev already beat him conclusively.

It's a nonsense fight.

[golden_labrador]

tbh Beterbiev having a crushing win before the Bivol fight will probably help sell tickets

[maverick23]

tbh Beterbiev having a crushing win before the Bivol fight will probably help sell tickets

Does it need any help? It’s genuinely one of the best fights to make in boxing at the moment. Bivol’s on fire and Beterbiev’s a beast.

2 Russians fighting may not sell well in the US but they’d be a sizeable pot of money available in the UAE for it.

[Ruthless-RKO]

tbh Beterbiev having a crushing win before the Bivol fight will probably help sell tickets

Does it need any help? It’s genuinely one of the best fights to make in boxing at the moment. Bivol’s on fire and Beterbiev’s a beast.

2 Russians fighting may not sell well in the US but they’d be a sizeable pot of money available in the UAE for it.

Ward-Kovalev was a big fight to make. Ranked at the box office. Ticket sales weren’t the best either.

I do reckon Bert-Biv will take place in UAE.

[emallini]

I hope Yarde doesn't hurt Beterbiev too bad

[Manchester Hitman]

Yarde a boxer whose best win is Lyndon Arthur (who beat him first) has no business being anywhere near Beterbiev.

Joe Smith would batter Anthony Yarde. And Beterbiev already beat him conclusively.

It's a nonsense fight.

Its not a nonsense fight. Yarde punches like a mule. Kovalev said at the time, that was the hardest he had been hit, even tho he had been KO’d by others.

The Geezer went into the Canelo fight still a suffering from the effects of the Yarde fight.

Beterbiev is obviously the clear favourite and likely to win, but if he gets cracked by Yarde it will hurt him. He is not GGG- he’s been down twice and visibly hurt before.

[maverick23]

Yarde a boxer whose best win is Lyndon Arthur (who beat him first) has no business being anywhere near Beterbiev.

Joe Smith would batter Anthony Yarde. And Beterbiev already beat him conclusively.

It's a nonsense fight.

Its not a nonsense fight. Yarde punches like a mule. Kovalev said at the time, that was the hardest he had been hit, even tho he had been KO’d by others.

The Geezer went into the Canelo fight still a suffering from the effects of the Yarde fight.

Beterbiev is obviously the clear favourite and likely to win, but if he gets cracked by Yarde it will hurt him. He is not GGG- he’s been down twice and visibly hurt before.

I think the difficulty with critiquing Yarde is his opposition. You say he hits like a mule but the guys he’s been Ko’ing are low level. The only guy 2 guys who fought him with ambition weren’t stopped (Kovalev and Arthur) and beat him - albeit Arthur was blown away in the rematch. The rest of his opposition has been really poor and none of them would win a British title if able to fight for one. I’d say, based on who they’ve stopped, Joe Smith Jr has is probably a bigger puncher than Yarde as he’s stopped some good, tough fighters.

He lost the majority of the rounds against Kovalev bar the time when he hurt him. From memory Kovalev’s accuracy was really good against him which isn’t surprising as he wasn’t/suspect still isn’t used to needing to defend much.

I didn’t see Kov saying Yarde was the biggest puncher he’d been in with and re: going into the Canelo fight suffering the effects I think it’s more that he didn’t get time off between camps that he was complaining about post Canelo. I think it was only 10 weeks between the fights.

I agree it’s not a nonsense fight. I just think it’s difficult to pick against a comfortable Beterbiev win.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Winner of this will be ordered to fight Callum Smith.

WBC announced he was the mandatory at their convention.

[Monzon83]

Winner of this will be ordered to fight Callum Smith.

WBC announced he was the mandatory at their convention.

Callum Smith would demolish Yarde inside 6 rounds and Yarde would be lucky to get that far.

I'm amazed people seem to rate Yarde, he's fought nothing but binmen. Lost to Lyndon with one-arm and a shot Kovalev beat him with a jab. He's trash.

[Monzon83]

Yarde a boxer whose best win is Lyndon Arthur (who beat him first) has no business being anywhere near Beterbiev.

Joe Smith would batter Anthony Yarde. And Beterbiev already beat him conclusively.

It's a nonsense fight.

Its not a nonsense fight. Yarde punches like a mule. Kovalev said at the time, that was the hardest he had been hit, even tho he had been KO’d by others.

The Geezer went into the Canelo fight still a suffering from the effects of the Yarde fight.

Beterbiev is obviously the clear favourite and likely to win, but if he gets cracked by Yarde it will hurt him. He is not GGG- he’s been down twice and visibly hurt before.

Yarde wasn't able to KO a drunken, shot Kovalev who in his next fight was flattened by a blown-up WW. He clearly doesn't hit like a mule or Kov wouldn't have survived.
If Beterbiev cracks Yarde he's going to sleep If Yarde fought Joe Smith he'd end up asleep. If he boxes Callum Smith he's definitely going to sleep.

It's a total mismatch and Yarde shouldn't be anywhere near a world title. His best win is Lydon Arthur who is basically a domestic level fighter. The rest of his Euro-trash nonentities aren't even that good.

[Manchester Hitman]

Yarde a boxer whose best win is Lyndon Arthur (who beat him first) has no business being anywhere near Beterbiev.

Joe Smith would batter Anthony Yarde. And Beterbiev already beat him conclusively.

It's a nonsense fight.

Its not a nonsense fight. Yarde punches like a mule. Kovalev said at the time, that was the hardest he had been hit, even tho he had been KO’d by others.

The Geezer went into the Canelo fight still a suffering from the effects of the Yarde fight.

Beterbiev is obviously the clear favourite and likely to win, but if he gets cracked by Yarde it will hurt him. He is not GGG- he’s been down twice and visibly hurt before.

Yarde wasn't able to KO a drunken, shot Kovalev who in his next fight was flattened by a blown-up WW. He clearly doesn't hit like a mule or Kov wouldn't have survived.
If Beterbiev cracks Yarde he's going to sleep If Yarde fought Joe Smith he'd end up asleep. If he boxes Callum Smith he's definitely going to sleep.

It's a total mismatch and Yarde shouldn't be anywhere near a world title. His best win is Lydon Arthur who is basically a domestic level fighter. The rest of his Euro-trash nonentities aren't even that good.

[gregregegg]

Crazy to think yarde had his best carrer win 2021 and his only fight of 2022 is going to be Stefani Koykov... yarde is 31, i get tune ups, but they done have to be 300th in the word... can have a tune up vs 50th.

[Monzon83]

Crazy to think yarde had his best carrer win 2021 and his only fight of 2022 is going to be Stefani Koykov... yarde is 31, i get tune ups, but they done have to be 300th in the word... can have a tune up vs 50th.

You can probably tell but i regard Yarde as a complete fraud. Him and Tunde are a stain on the sport IMO. No intention to fight anyone decent, just lining up one bum after another waiting for a big cash-out fight. It's tragic they pulled this con-trick once against Kovalev and they're now about to repeat it against Beterbiev.

It weakens the sport massively when fighters like Yarde get opportunities at titles their records genuinely don't deserve. Yarde has fought nobody of any repute whatsoever that would justify another World title shot. His entire career is soft KO's against bin-men. Yet here he is about to fight a P4P unified champ. It's an absolute disgrace.

I sincerely hope Beterbiev smashes him to pieces it will be exactly what him and Tunde deserve.

[THEBUTCH]

Yep, your disdain for Yarde comes through loud and clear

It's clouding your posts somewhat, but ultimately I agree, Yarde has done nowhere near enough to earn a world title shot...let alone twice

We want to get behind our boxers, but Yarde represents so many of the ills in boxing that it makes it difficult to get on board.

[CaptainSpacerod]

Why such bitterness towards a British lad who’s got a shot at a world title. Why not just get behind him and wish him well. I don’t remember the same spite being shown on here towards Callum Johnson when he got a crack at Bert.

I can’t help thinking that those posters having a right pop at Yarde are really conflating Yarde with the quite irritating Tunde

[maverick23]

Why such bitterness towards a British lad who’s got a shot at a world title. Why not just get behind him and wish him well. I don’t remember the same spite being shown on here towards Callum Johnson when he got a crack at Bert.

I can’t help thinking that those posters having a right pop at Yarde are really conflating Yarde with the quite irritating Tunde

I said before on here that I found myself wanting the Arthur decision in the first fight to go against Yarde purely because of my dislike of Tunde and what they represent.

Callum Johnson’s always seemed level headed and with a professional team. Yarde, and his team mostly, talk nonsense and shout lions in the camp, even from the corner during fights.
Frank’s a master at getting undeserved world title fights with the WBO but the reality is that Yarde has one credible win and somehow 2 mandatory title fights. He’s fought 2 opponents who were natural light heavy’s with ability above or around British title level and both beat him.

I’ll be rooting for Yarde to win but there’s nothing I’ve seen that makes me think he’s in with a decent chance of winning and I won’t be too bothered if he loses.

[skanksta]

Oh stop moaning, it's a mouth-watering fight !!

It's a bit of a mismatch obvs, but it'll probably be a better watch than Bivol would be !
Besides, (clutching a bit, but) Bert IS nearly 40 and Yarde is @ home with unusual one-shot KO power, you never know...

[Lenny Cravats]

Butler and Yarde to bring it!