Artur Beterbiev team member John ‘Iceman’ Scully predicts that the unbeaten IBF, WBC & WBO lightt heavyweight champion will beat challenger Anthony Yarde on January 28th at the OVO Arena Wembley in London, England.
Scully believes that the unbeaten Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) has too much power and skills for the thev31-year-old Yarde (23-2, 22 KOs), and he’ll deal him a defeat.
Yarde will have a big crowd of supporters present on January 28th, but it’s difficult to say if they’ll give him enough of a boost to pull off a massive upset against Beterbiev.
“Twelve rounds is a long time to be in there with this man,” said John Scully to Thoughts Of The Pugilist about Artur Beterbiev. “He puts pressure on. Sometimes in a subtle manner, and sometimes it’s obvious, but it’s really, really hard to stay with this guy mentally twelve rounds.
“I can’t see him losing. He’s the best light heavyweight in the world at this point. Not just the best, but the strongest. He’s the strongest punching. He has so many things on his side.
“It does because he keeps you on your toes more than most other fighters because he wants you engaged. He wants you paying attention. He wants you telling him what he’s doing,” Scully said about Beterbiev.
“At the same time, he’s not someone that you have to watch. You don’t have to make sure [Beterbiev does the work]. ‘Make sure you do the situps.’ That would be an insult.
“If you told him, ‘Make sure you do the situps,’ he would be insulted. He knows to do the situps. He knows everything he has to do,” said Scully.
“It doesn’t make no difference to me what your problem is. I don’t care about you. We just want to win. Whatever it entails, that what we’re ready to do,” said Scully to Boxing with Ivan Montiel.
“I think Yarde is a good fighter. He presents problems. The ONLY people I see saying Yarde is going to win are people from the UK. With that said, Yarde is a good fighter. I’ve been watching him. He’s tricky. He’s better than what people give him credit for, and it’s a real fight. We have to be on our game to beat him for sure.
“Yarde can be stylistically difficult, but ultimately, Artur brings issues to him that I don’t think Yarde is going to overcome. If I was to bet on it, that’s what I would bet that is going to happen,” said Scully.