Joe Gallagher, the 2015 Ring Magazine Trainer of the Year, has offered his thoughts ahead of the recently announced world title fight between Artur Beterbiev and Anthony Yarde.
The WBC, WBO and IBF champion has knocked out all eighteen of his opponents in the professional ring, since turning pro in 2013.
However, Gallagher, who trained Callum Johnson when he fought Beterbiev, explained that one of the champions greatest weapons in his arsenal is in fact his jab, as opposed to his fearsome right-hand, he told Queensbury Promotions.
“You can’t show him too much respect.
When Callum Johnson fought him, you’ve got to go guide by your fighters as well, we have a game plan and everything else. After two rounds, Callum Johnson says ‘I’m stronger than him up close, I can bully him, he’s not that strong up close’. So I said to him ‘alright then, you’re in charge, but you can’t be walking onto his jab’.
Beterbiev has got an unbelievable jab, he’s got a jab that would knock a horse over and I don’t think people give him credit for it. Everyone is on about his right hand, his pet shot is his looping right hook as your walking in, we’ve seen it recently with Joe Smith and he caught Callum Johnson with it.”
With Beterbiev yet to hear the final bell, the Russian-Canadian will be expecting yet another knockout to add to his résumé, as he chases Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed light-heavyweight title fight.
This has led Gallagher to believe he will opt against a fast start and instead apply calculated pressure onto the Brit and wait for his opportunity to strike as the challenger begins to tire.
“Anthony Yarde, as far as Beterbiev will think, highly physically built, runs out of gas, a fast-twitch fighter but hasn’t got twelve rounds in him. We have seen that with Lyndon [Arthur] a little bit. So, they will mostly be thinking that Yarde won’t do the distance, we’ll apply pressure, calculated pressure, we will make Anthony Yarde fight on his nerves early on.”
The fight takes place on January 28th at Wembley Arena, live on BT Sport and rather surprisingly, not on pay-per-view. The undercard is packed full of Queensberry prospects, as well as another world title fight, with Artem Dalakian defending his WBC flyweight world title against Costa Rican challenger David Jimenez.