LONDON | Artur Beterbiev arrived at the Queensberry Promotions press conference in a cold and damp garage floor with a beaming smile for a champion just stepping out of the ring. No sound system, workers make a hell of a noise moving the aluminum stairs, these people should have made a detour via Shawinigan.
• Also read: Artur Beterbiev: KO in the round of 16
Beterbiev fans sometimes worried. The fight was tough and Anthony Yarde often managed to trade shot for shot with Beterbiev. That doesn’t happen often in a fight. But from the journalists’ table, seen from the first row, we felt from the fifth lap that Yarde was starting to pump oil, despite nice gusts of wind. Beterbiev wore it down.
And Arthur confirms in the garage. “He’s a good boxer. He is brave and skillful. But honestly, we were in control. It went as planned. I’m not Muhammad Ali, I’m an ordinary boxer, but the plan is for Yarde to slow down in this part of the fight,” Beterbiev said.
And Artur started a nice sentence. “It’s a win for me. But for Yarde, who’s only 31, it’s an experience he’s had. I told him after the fight that he was good and young,” said the champion.
THE PRICE OF MUSCLES
Photo provided by Julie Bertrand
At a press conference, the champion was surrounded by Marc Ramsay and Carl Moretti.
In a press conference, Marc Ramsay commented that losing a few rounds during the fight didn’t bother him too much. We wanted to take him into deep waters, where Artur ends up taking his opponents with him. And it went as planned,” Ramsay said.
But in discussions after the press conference, Ramsay went even further in his explanations: “We were aware of his clout. But we also knew it was an explosive force. There’s a price to using muscles as strong as Yarde’s. Lactic acid is more intrusive. Boxing, 12 rounds, is also a marathon and we knew Yarde had no constitution for a marathon. After the seventh, we felt he was asking for help from his corner. The motto has started: It’s time, go Artur”, explained Ramsay.
And Arthur went there.
The fight was very hard. Anthony Yarde was well prepared. He delivered close rounds during a bitter fight.
But Artur Beterbiev broke his opponent. Literally. He used it. He smashed it and on the eighth lap, Yarde, who had been saved in the fifth lap by a five-second early bell, collapsed. It was the referee and the coach who stopped the fight. Yarde was demolished.
The fight was hard fought in the packed OVO Arena at Wembley. In a charged atmosphere like we saw at the great Lucian Bute evenings in Montreal and Quebec ten years ago.
CAUTION BEMERBIEV
“He was the opponent who bothered Artur the most,” said veteran Russ Anber after the fight: “He was more dangerous and even braver than Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Artur hit him straight and he had the heart to come back to counterattack. That’s very impressive,” said Anber.
The question now is whether Yarde was as good as Russ Anber says, or whether Artur Beterbiev’s 38 is starting to look good.
I personally prefer the first hypothesis. Yarde was very brave. And often impressive.
Ramsay, Luc-Vincent Ouellet, Sam Décarie, Zachary Aubry, Russ Anber, the Masso, the Doc and the others found themselves in a kebab shop. Artur went to the same bar where Chechen friends were waiting for him.
He was radiant, cheerful and in a good mood.
Indeed, as he had told me earlier in the week. “I love Sundays. I won on Saturday night”.
Simon Kean in the United States.
And Camille Estephan has been in London since Thursday morning.
He didn’t come for the Cirque du Soleil show.
Beterbiev meets Callum Smith in Montreal this summer?
“With Artur Beterbiev defeating Anthony Yarde, we have a lot of options for his next fight,” said Carl Moretti, Vice President Boxing for Top Rank, of the next steps.
“We will probably be forced to offer a fight to WBC mandatory contender Callum Smith. We want to present this fight in Montreal at the end of the summer.”
In this case, Top Rank would have the choice of partner. Either Eye of The Tiger Management or the GYM group. “We have a precedent with this promoter,” Moretti said. He was specifically referring to Artur Beterbiev’s fight against Marcus Browne on December 7, 2021 at Bell Center.
“On the other hand, Marc Ramsay is close to Camille Estephan and we have an agreement with EOTTM for Arslanbek Makhmudov and Simon Kean. In principle, everything is open to a decision,” added Carl Moretti.
Bivol, the dream
Obviously the dream fight would be with Dmitry Bivol. But Moretti points out that Bivol will be paid $5.3 million for a rematch with Canelo Alvarez. Despite the growing popularity of Beterbiev, he could not offer such a sum to Bivol.
But before the fight is presented in Montreal, Moretti made an important clarification. Callum Smith is English. “It could be that an offer from London is very important. At that point we will see,” he concluded.
Drive left
THE RED AND GOLD IN LONDON
Photo provided by Julie Bertrand
So Lady Ju was up in the wind with Big Z when she encountered this gentleman in a Rouge et Or jacket, a Canadian jacket in Moscow or a Speedo in the colors of Jacques Villeneuve at Cherating in Malaysia we’ve seen before, but A Rouge et Or jacket in London is big. Eventually, Karim explained that he had found this very red jacket in a second-hand shop in a working-class area of London. This means that Jacques Tanguay, President of Rouge et Or, lost his jacket in a London taxi somewhere…
MY VISIT TO KING CHARLES
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Word of my love affair with Lady Di at Wimbledon had spread from Lac Grenon to Falardeau. But I hadn’t fallen out with her husband, although Diana complained that he snored too much.
Yesterday I showed up at Buckingham Palace for a little courtesy call on Charles who has become king and is still snoring. The furry helmet on the door let me know Charles was napping. I, being presented with the Diamond Jubilee Medal by Queen Elizabeth, her mother, felt a little offended. He does this with a friend of his mother’s.
THE COLONY SOLUTION
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We had dinner at a poor restaurant on Friday evening. Seriously, the mashed potatoes left me a bit disappointed. And I’m a mashed potato specialist. What impressed me the most was the phone jammer that kicks in as soon as you enter the dining room. If you want your SMS when you expect a call from the desk, you get up from the desk and go to the living room by the entrance.
When we see all the photos of British Prime Ministers and royalty on the walls, we understand that they don’t like to be disturbed.
ELVIS, A WORK OF ART
Photo provided by Julie Bertrand
Gallery JD Malat is showing a poster of Elvis in King Creole. But as you get closer, you realize that the artist has taken the original 1958 poster and given it a pop art life that touches everyone who lingers to contemplate the work. The exhibition, entitled The Urban Poet, takes classic themes and breathes modern life into them. What I saw of it struck me as fabulous.
“If you’re looking for trouble, you’ve come to the right place,” sang Elvis in King Creole. Song covered by Artur Beterbiev which he served to Anthony Yarde at the OVO Arena in Wambley on Saturday night.
