Yarde Stops Spelman
Following six competitive rounds, light heavyweight boxer Anthony Yarde (20-1, 19 KO’s) picked up a highly questionable stoppage over Dec “Kid Nytro” Spelman (16-5, 8 KO’s). With the win, Yarde has now won two consecutive matches since his professional loss to Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KO’s) back on August 24, 2019. For Spelman, it was his first time suffering a stoppage loss.
To begin, both fighters did little else than circle one another and paw with the jab. By the third round, Yarde appeared to be falling more into a good grove, although nothing worth remembering took place or landed. During the fourth period, Yarde began picking up the pace by working effectively behind a double jab. Outside of the steady jab, the one-time world title challenger was regularly looking to land nasty uppercuts.
With the coming of the fifth round, Yarde dedicated himself to a withering body attack. To his credit, Spelman was game and connected particularly well with right hooks and overhand rights. Unfortunately for him though, the body assault that initiated in the fifth took serious effect in the sixth. In fact, Spelman was so drained by an extended volley that he voluntarily took a knee. Yet, despite not being buzzed or overly beat up, referee Michael Alexander somewhat shockingly waived the contest off.
Admittedly, the tide in the fight was clearly swinging in Yarde’s favor but Spelman obviously had a great deal left in the tank. When the bout was halted he complained mightily. It will be interesting to see what fight Yarde takes on next. At the moment he is ranked #5, #12 and #11 by the WBO, IBF and WBC respectively.
By: Bakari Simpson
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