I AM NOT TAKING THE SCENIC ROUTE

Fighter Diary by Anthony Yarde

Ahead of his next fight at the Copper Box on September 16, in the latest of our exclusive weekly diary columns by the fighters, light heavyweight sensation Anthony Yarde reflects on a spell in the spotlight where only verbal jabs were dispatched

I KNOW A lot of people have had a lot to say recently about my career path and the route I am taking, but myself and my team will continue to do what we have been doing and take fights where victory will see me progress and climb the rankings.

For me it is all about taking steps forward, not backwards, and my opponent on September 16 at the Copper Box – Ryan Ford – provides me with another new experience, in that he is an undefeated fighter with the same 12-0 record as me.

Yes we wanted and made an offer for a fight against Frank Buglioni, but his wasn’t even a name on my mind until he started calling my name.

He is the first one who has really called me out on social media and that is why our names got put together. He increased his own relevance.

Do I think he is taking the right route now? No. A fight with me would be better in terms of magnitude and would be good for both of us.

Every time a boxer fights he is taking a risk and he is a fighter who does get hit and leaves himself exposed. So every fight he goes in with these guys he is taking a bigger risk, so why didn’t he take a risk with me for a big payday?

It seems that Frank was talking about me – calling me easy work and other stuff – from a safe position, knowing he could always hide behind the fact he had a mandatory defence looming.

Boxing is a sport where a lot of people don’t know what happens behind the scenes, so he can fool the public with his comments. But the fact is I have got a higher world ranking than him and we offered the fight without his British title at stake, so he still could’ve gone back to that.

He has got a good chance of winning against the likes of Callum Johnson and Hosea Burton, so I can see why he is taking this option. If he went in with me it would be the final chapter of his career, so he is being smart and I can’t fault anyone for doing their job.

I will get on with trying to add to my belt collection and build towards my ultimate goal of becoming world champion. Whatever route we have to take to get there, we will take.

Both Buglioni and his promoter know that an eliminator fight against Hosea Burton doesn’t make any sense for me. If I walk to the sweet shop, I don’t walk the longest way round to get there when there is a shorter more effective route.

I am not interested in taking the scenic route.

My promoter Frank Warren made a very generous offer to Buglioni – and then added a bonus – for him to fight me. We made offers and nobody made any offers to me, so it is all talk at the end of the day.

Burton is still coming off a bad loss to Buglioni, so to try and put him in with me says he is not cared about. It would be like throwing him in the trash bin.

To me, that is not somebody that you care about and it is like trying to get him off the books.

They have tried to tarnish my name and it is not nice, but boxing is a brutal sport and, as far as I’m concerned, I will focus on the fights in front of me, the fights that do make sense.

Check in next week for the first diary column entry by Daniel Dubois