The Return Of "The Beast"- Saturday Fight Night
Saturday night will see Anthony Yarde’s (19-1-0) return to British soil for the first time in 18 months when he headlines Frank Warren's latest show, taking on on fellow Brit Dec Spelman (16-4-0). The knockout specialist Yarde is looking to take his career tally wins to 20 victories with 19 coming by way of knockout and will surely be looking to make a statement. Yarde, who will be looking for more big fights after jumping into the deep end against the Russian “Krusher” Sergey Kovalev and coming up short.
It may well have been a totally different story if Yarde had managed to capitalise on hurting the Russian champion in the 8th round. Yarde recently said in an interview with London Evening Standard "I let the situation overwhelm me. You could see it in my performance, instead of doing what I normally do and getting the job done... in the heat of the moment, it overwhelmed me. That's because of emotion".
Yarde's opponent, Dec Spelman has the advantage of fighting post lockdown after his unanimous points decision defeat against Lyndon Arthur, it was a pretty close fight according to two of the three judges but questionably wide on the third scorecard. Dec will no doubt be looking forward to this fight and has stated in a recent interview with Seconds Out Boxing "I really think the styles will gel, he's coming forwards, I'm coming forward and however long it goes, it's going to be exciting". He has been sounding extremely confident of causing a major upset and we will find out on Saturday if he has able to do just that.
The chief support consists of two hard-hitting Brits. Lancashire born Mark Heffron (25-1-0) and unbeaten Londoner, Denzel Bentley (13-0-0) fight for the vacant IBF European Middleweight Title. It promises to be an all-out war which may struggle to go the distance. This could well be the fight of the night and is being classed as a 50-50 fight and quite possibly a 'who lands first' fight. Both fighters have been climbing the ranks in the last two years and the winner will be looking towards world honours in the near future.
There are also some mouthwatering domestic clashes for the victor with the likes of Felix Cash and Liam Williams possible bouts. The middleweight division is littered with talent and Denzel Bentley has certainly got people talking with his ruthless knockout percentage and will be looking to continue that against Heffron. Heffron, whose only professional defeat actually came at the hands of Liam Williams, has made it four wins from four fights and will be looking to prove he belongs at European and world level.
The remainder of the seven-fight card includes the unbeaten welterweight, Ekow Essuman who looks to win the vacant IBF European Welterweight Titles against Frenchman, Cedrick Peynaud. Ekow has beaten the likes of Tyrone Nurse and Curtis Felix Jnr in his rise up the ranks and will be looking to claim his first major title as a professional. The Brit, who is based in Nottingham is still learning his trade at the age of 31 having only thirteen professional fights but his record has shown, he can do no wrong at present.
The remaining three fights on the card includes two unbeaten fighters, Mohammad Bilal Ali and Amin Jahanzeb followed by Josh Frankham who is making his professional debut.
Unfortunately, due to Richard Lartey's medicals not being supplied in time for him to enter the bubble, the fight between Nathan Gorman and Richard Lartey has been pushed back to Saturday 10th October 2020.
