One year ago, on Dec. 5 of 2020, 29-year-old light heavyweights Lyndon Arthur and Anthony Yarde met behind closed doors at London’s Copper Box arena. Manchester’s Arthur kept his undefeated record intact, winning a split decision. Yarde fought the early rounds with an eye toward preserving his stamina and it cost him. His stamina had deserted him when he fought Sergey Kovalev in 2019. Kovalev stopped him in the 11^th round, but it was fatigue rather than any specific punch that caved him in.

Yarde had less worries about his stamina heading into tonight’s Copper Box rematch and let his hands go freely from the opening bell. In the fourth round, he hurt Arthur with a hard counter to the body, backed him into the ropes and landed a flurry of punches capped by a chopping right hand that put Arthur on the deck. Arthur rose just as the ref reached “10,” but had he beat the count he would have been in no condition to continue.

Although Arthur (19-1) was unbeaten heading in, the heavier-handed Anthony Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs) was a 7/5 favorite. He positioned himself for a WBO title fight against the winner of the Jan. 15 match in upstate New York between Joe Smith Jr and Callum Johnson.

Other Bouts

Twenty-two-year-old London junior middleweight Hamzah Sheeraz improved to 14-0 with his eighth straight win inside the distance, but Sheeraz had his hands full with Bradley Skeete who was clearly ahead after the penultimate eighth round.

In the eighth, Sheeraz dropped Skeete and then hit him twice while Skeete had his knee on the canvas. The referee took a point away from Sheeraz who would then drop Skeete again in the final seconds of the round. In the ninth, after Skeete took another knee, the referee waived it off.

This was the second fight in 2021 for Skeete (29-4) who had to be coaxed back to the ring after missing all of 2019 and 2020. He didn’t win, but his showing did not reflect well on his well-touted opponent.

Lightweight Sam Noakes is now 8-for-8 in his young career with every “W” coming inside the distance, after scoring a ninth-round TKO over willing but feather-fisted Shawn Cooper (11-3). This was Noakes’ first scheduled 10-rounder.

In an 8-round bantamweight bout, southpaw Dennis “The Menace” McCann advanced to 11-0 with an 80-72 shutout over Argentine veteran Juan Jose Jurado. The 20-year-old McCann, a Traveler who quit school at the age of 10, hurt Jurado on several occasions with body punches, but wasn’t able to put him away. A hot prospect with a bright future, McCann has lost precious few rounds during his 11 pro fights.  It was the fifth straight loss for Jurado (15-5-3).

In a major upset, Kamil Sokolowski, a 35-year-old Pole, won an 8-round decision over mammoth heavyweight George Fox. The referee awarded Fox (4-1) only one round.

Sokolowski had lost eight of his last 10 heading in, reducing his record to 10-22-2. But he’s seldom been an easy out, losing to heavy favorites Lucas Browne, Kash Ali, and David Adeleye in fights where he arguably should have received a draw.

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