Frank Warren has commented on the decision from trainer Tunde Ajayi to pull Anthony Yarde out of his unified world title fight with Artur Beterbiev at the OVO Arena on Saturday night, praising Ajayi for the “sensible” move.
Some fans on social media questioned whether or not the withdrawal was premature, however Warren believes that Ajayi’s call was the correct one.
Speaking to IFL TV, Warren said:
“You’ve got to make a judgement, and the people around him [Yarde] care about him.
You see all the criticism, but Tunde cares for him and he showed it in that fight.
That was a really sensible decision from the corner.”
Warren went on to admit that you never know what could have happened, but sometimes it’s better to be ‘safe that sorry’.
“You can always think, if it wasn’t stopped would he of recovered like when he got clipped a couple of times in the fight and come back, who knows?
But it’s better to be safe than sorry sometimes.”
Although the Brit beat the count to return to his feet, he had visibly not recovered and Ajayi took to the ring apron to halt the fight as Beterbiev began to unload again.
Up until that point, Yarde had been giving a good account of himself. He appeared to rock the Russian on several occasions and was ahead on two of the three judges scorecards.
There have already been widespread calls for Yarde and domestic rival Joshua Buatsi, who was working on the BT broadcast team, to square off next.
As for Beterbiev, there looks to be every chance he will be returning to the UK for his next outing, after the WBC ordered him to face mandatory challenger Callum Smith next.
Despite this, Top Rank representatives have stated their desire to make undisputed clash with national compatriot Dimitri Bivol, however there would be steep promotional and broadcasting barriers to overcome for that fight to be made.