Victory in the Russian city, made famous by a meteor which exploded above it in 2013, would go down as
one of the greatest victories by a Brit abroad in the country’s boxing history, but Yarde is not sure what all
the fuss is about. ‘Hostile environments’, he insists, are his thing.
“I was born in Hackney,” he says. “One of the most dangerous moments of my life happened right there.
That day guns were pulled out on us by elder guys.
“The same thing happened to me in south London, I shouldn’t have been there, but then the car just came
out of nowhere.
“Sometimes you found yourself in conflict or within an area where there’s conflict. Some days you just find
yourself in danger. Sometimes these things mould you and that’s what I mean about hostile environments.
“For me, hostile environments was going to the youth club where there were different gangs and you know
people have got knives and people are looking to do damage. Or, it’s something as simple as someone wants
your phone.
“They are the situations where you start to feel the nerves building because you don’t know what’s going to
happen.
“How it’s going to go when I’m out there in Russia? I don’t know but I know I’ll just adapt.”
Yarde was a relative late-comer to the sport and joins an exhaustive list of boxers who can safely confirm
that his life was saved by the controlled violence on offer inside the gym.
Anthony Yarde faces his biggest test yet
against Sergey Kovalev (Getty)Although he was intrigued by a Mike Tyson documentary he saw when he was 14, Yarde says he only
started boxing at 19. A short amateur career comprising 12 fights with 11 inside the distance followed before
he turned professional in 2015.
He has not gone the distance inside the ring since June of that year when Stanislavs Makarenko managed to
hang tough for all four rounds. It means he has only ever heard the final bell on two occasions - be it
amateur of pro. In total he has had just 30 fights in his life.
What’s more, few of those opponents are anywhere near fit to lace the well-worn boots of Kovalev, who is
one of his generation’s most fearsome light heavyweights. In fact Yarde was only six when the Russian made
his amateur debut back in 1997. It has been suggested, however, that the self-styled ‘Krusher’, who did just
that to Welshman Nathan Cleverly six years ago this month, might just be a spent force.
“Are his best days behind him? I don’t think like that,” adds Yarde. “From what I see, in his last fight he
looked sharp. He looked sharper than he has looked in recent years. I feel like he’s still there, I don’t feel