WBO number one contender Anthony Yarde 22-2 (21) is expecting to face unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev 18-0 (18) next.
The 20-year-old Brit was ringside to watch the undefeated Russian’s two round demolition of Joe Smith Jr 28-4 (22) at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
Speaking ahead of the fight, Yarde told SecondsOut: “I think it’s going to be a very exciting fight. I look forward to it because it’s another opportunity and this is what I’m in the sport for.”
Asked whether he would accept step-aside money to allow WBC, WBO and IBF champion Beterbiev to face WBA boss Dmitry Bivol 20-0 (11) first, he said no. Unification bouts typically take precedence over mandatory defences.
“That’s not looking likely,” Yarde said. “What I’ve been told, Beterbiev is coming to London. They’ve been saying October.
“The preparation will begin intensely as soon as I get back to London. I think a lot of Smith’s tactics played into the hands of Beterbiev.”
Promoter Frank Warren expects the fight with Beterbiev, who is promoted by Bob Arum, to go ahead as planned.
“It’s more or less agreed, we’re looking to fight [Beterbiev] in October in London,” Warren told BBC Sport.
“Bob and I have agreed we’ll do the fight, but they’re going to be ordered [to fight Yarde] anyway. It will be a great fight.”
However, Beterbiev has indicated he would prefer to square up with Bivol next.
“I need to be with this belt for a couple of days,” Beterbiev said after his victory over Smith. “Joe is a little open and it was easy to get to him. Two fighters that both have good punch, and I was lucky to get first. I have two unification fights, I prefer unified. I prefer to be undisputed.”
Bivol’s team is also open to the fight.
“We like both of these fighters [Beterbiev and Smith] very much,” Bivol’s promoter Andrey Ryabinskiy told Sky Sports ahead of the fight.
“Bivol would be extremely interested in having a fight against the winner of this bout, especially if the winner is Artur Beterbiev. The fight between Bivol-Beterbiev is a long-awaited dream of all boxing fans.
“We’ve over the years had conversations about Bivol and Beterbiev fighting. When things during Covid kind of locked up and everything was in paralysis it didn’t go very far.
“I think that pot has gotten bigger as a result of the emergence of Bivol who came from nowhere with the big upset.
“I think that division obviously got a bit of a boost when Bivol upset [Saul] Canelo [Alvarez]. But there will be plenty of options for the winner of this fight.
“You have a guy, Anthony Yarde from your neck of the woods [in the UK] that is a mandatory challenger for that [WBO title]. So he’s going to be thrown into the mix. Bivol is in the mix obviously and you got guys like Gilberto Ramirez and things like that. I think there’s really a lot of matches in that division now.”
