Frank Warren Confirms Beterbiev-Yarde For January

Tuesday afternoon British Promoter Frank Warren confirmed that unified light heavyweight champ Artur Beterbiev will be healed up from injury and is on track to defend against England’s Anthony Yarde in January.

Warren, who heads up Queensberry Promotions in Britain and handles Yarde’s deals, told IFL TV in a video interview that the bout will happen in England January 28th. He also confirmed that the contender will have a tune-up bout coming next month,

“Anthony’s gonna fight (Beterbiev) for three world titles on the 28th of January… That’ll be in London,” Warren told the show. “He’s (Yarde) not had a fight in nearly 12 months now. He needs to get some ring rust out of his system.”

To that end, Warren said that Yarde will be back on a card in November that will also feature English super middleweight Zach Parker in action.

Our Dan Rafael reported Tuesday night that the bout will be at the Wembley Arena and will be streamed in the U.S. on ESPN+.

As for the delayed defense by the unbeaten Russian Beterbiev, he suffered a knee injury in training back in August. The WBC/WBO/IBF champ is 18-0, 18 KOs, and was last in the ring in June. That’s when he destroyed American Joe Smith via a second round KO to add the WBO world title to his WBC/IBF hardware.

Meanwhile, the Brit Yarde, he’s 22-2, 21 KOs and previously lost in a world title challenge in Russia to Sergey Kovalev in 2019. The Beterbiev-Yarde bout was being discussed in the immediate aftermath of Beterbiev’s victory over Smith.

This, as Yarde was in attendance at New York’s Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. Beterbiev is co-promoted by Top Rank Boxing and they have a deal with Yarde’s promoter Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions to co-promote bouts, including with WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury.

Bob Arum of Top Rank and Warren both made clear back in June that Beterbiev would be fine with fighting Yarde in England in front of what would be a large crowd of his partisan fans.

So, Warren’s Tuesday confirmation is a sign that things are back on track for the bout in England.