Anthony Yarde Reveals Ralphs Vilcans Over Ten Rounds; Michael McKinson, Shannon Courtenay Are Suffering In Pain
Anthony Yarde (right) lands a right hand from Ralfs Vilcans of Latvia in their light heavyweight bout on Oct. 18 at the Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, London, UK. Photo credit: Chris Dean, BOXXER
Given some of the undercard results, Anthony Yarde will happily accept a win today and look good next time.
The two-time champion picked up his third straight victory with a ten-round decision over Ralfs Vilcans. Referee Victor Loughlin called Yarde their light heavyweight bout on Saturday at the Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, London.
Yarde (26-3, 24 knockouts) went the distance for just the third time in his career. This happened after there was a danger that they would run into something.
The 33-year-old home grown man, who was born in Hackney, floored Latvian Vilcans (17-2, 7 KOs) with a right hand for ten seconds on the night. Vilcans recovered quickly and continued to cause all kinds of Yarde’s equalization.
Yarde, The Ring’s No. 4-rated light heavyweight, wanted to turn things around at the beginning of the sixth hour. He swung the gun upward to connect with a left hook to the body. Vilcans caught the shot and stood up against Yarde, who was able to score without an explosive offense.
The Vilcans fought back trying to draw from Yarde. He then worked his way inside but failed to do more than provide a solid target.
Yarde went back to basics in the tenth and final round. A wise decision was made in his corner to simply punch rather than waste energy with a knockdown that didn’t exist. Yarde fought back from the jab and controlled the tempo in the final three minutes, although victory was already secured by that point.
“Normally, if I hit someone, the fight is over. I think the worst that could have happened to me was to dump him in the first round. In the last round, I went forward and punched.”
The question now is, who is next.
Yarde was beaten by Sergey Kovalev in 2019 and Artur Beterbiev last January. Beterbiev (22-0, 21 KOs)—now The Ring/undisputed 175-pound champion—followed two of three knockouts before stopping the Brit in the eighth round.
“I will fight anyone. Styles make fights. I have fought on the top of the mountain. What is placed in front of you usually brings out the best in you.”
At the very least, Yarde can say he avoided the upset.
The same did not happen to Michael McKinson and Shannon Courtenay, who both left the field empty-handed.
McKinson (26-2, 4 KOs) was defeated by Tulani Mbenge of South Africa in their twelve round welterweight fight.
Mbenge (21-2, 15 KOs) overcame a cut wound over his left eye and won 116-112, 116-112 and 117-111. This victory was the second following a painful loss to Souleymane Cissokho who received a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics almost two years ago.
The loss snapped McKinson’s four-fight winning streak following his August 2022 knockout loss to Vergil Ortiz in the US.
Courtenay’s career is now on the line after a stunning loss to handpicked Catherine Tacone. Their six-round featherweight fight saw Brazilian Tacone (6-3-1, 0 KOs) win 58-56 via Bernard Oyet’s scorecard.
It was the second loss in three fights for Courtenay (8-3, 3 KOs), a former WBA bantamweight. All three career losses have come in his last six starts.
All three fights are broadcast live on Peacock+ in the US and Sky Sports in the UK They came in support of the Adam Azim-Ohara Davies junior welterweight crossover fight.
