Interview – Declan Warrington
BN: Now that you’ve rested, what’s next?
I plan to fight at the end of July. We are waiting for promoters and managers to do their work in the background, in terms of opponents. I manage part of my career – I have a say – but if they say, “Let’s fight this guy,” I say, “Okay.” As long as I’m paid fairly, I’ll look for opportunities.
We had a meeting with George [Warren], and we’ll see what the options are. There aren’t many people who are willing to fight me if it weren’t for the title. If it’s a big fight, great. I really want to fight as soon as possible.
If I was given an opportunity, I would take it. I’d rather retire and say I made it, than, “What if?” “What if” will ruin the rest of my life, because I have seen it time and time again. People are injured and stop their careers; Some people have a life event that stops their career. During Covid, I had five family members pass away, so that shows you how short life is. “You’re here; you’ve got a chance; give it a shot.” You only have one life to live, so why not?
BN: Since reviewing your fight with Artur Betterbiev, what do you think about it?
I watched the fight as a fan first. I turned my emotions off – it was me, in fact – and it was an interesting fight. Back and forth. Heavy blows. Then I look back, analyze myself – to give Beterbiev his toughest match to date, I have to be proud of that. I have almost no experience and have been subjected to all this criticism – I did the right thing, which was to engage him to which he said, “I respect you” . There’s a little bit of relief [from him] when the war was over. Used to [me and trainer Tunde Ajay] will definitely be watching it together [too].
We have great respect for each other after the war; we both went there and gave it our all. He landed badly while I was throwing – that’s inexperienced – I missed and got my chin. That first punch will make a lot of people lose sleep. I’m annoyed that Tunde stopped the fight when he did, but Betterbiev may have started unloading more than he did.
[Afterwards] I’ve had the longest time I’ve been out of the gym – four weeks – since I started boxing. I have enjoyed it. You need to be able to know when to turn it off; Knowing that you’ve been doing this for a long time – tried your best – you need to give your body a break. To my surprise, when I turned around, Tunde said, “You’re doing secret training.” Rejuvenation. I feel sharper; it’s like I hit harder. I also feel better. All the knots that I had; the little wounds that I practiced through [are gone]. I feel better.
In fact, the only time I’ll say [how much that fight might have improved me] is when I’m back in the ring, because practice is one thing [and fighting’s another]. When you’re actually fighting, there’s pressure – in fact, “This is important”. When you scrim, you have to practice a lot – it doesn’t really matter. A fight is not practice. From [Tunde’s] the point of view of watching it, and my view of watching it, we incorporated certain things into the training.
BN: One of the best fights that can be made is the Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol…
It won’t happen. I really feel like I learned a lot from Betterbiev. Even when I rewatch the game – I rewind the scene where Tunde stops the match about 15 times. I’ve watched a lot of his matches leading up to that – I’ve never seen him so relieved when a game is stopped before. Never. Often he bangs the floor in aggression. “Gosh.” Wild mode. “I did this. Look at me. I am an animal.” This is like, “Thank God”.
Absolute [it needs to happen soon] but it won’t happen. I can put money on it. I can’t remember when the two Russian champions played against each other. We haven’t seen Bivol lose; we have never seen Betterbiev lose. It’s hard to rule out one of the two winners [against each other]. What Betterbiev does, without many people realizing it, is to get a boxer to surrender. He didn’t make me surrender, but he put pressure on a boxer and scared them to throw punches. He puts them in a state where they just want the fight to stop – he puts so much mental pressure on them that they end up cornered and beaten. I was there with him and saw how smart he is and some of the things he does.
Bivol is the technical sound, in the center of the ring. Can he keep Betterbiev out of the center of the ring? I do not think so. If the fight happens now, I think Betterbiev will win. If it happens in three years, Bivol wins.
BN: As a top light-heavyweight boxer, how do you feel about Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a super middleweight boxer who is likely to hit another one of his top boxers. group of friends, in Bivol?
It makes me feel happy for him, I promise you. People don’t know how hard the boxers work. Canelo has been doing this at this level for years, so he earned it. Just like how Floyd Mayweather got his fights and still made a lot of money – it was because he paved the way. He built such a career. All those years in the gym. All those years train twice a day; have all of them fight big. Dangerous, tough battles. Shoot to the head. When you retire, someone paved the way for us [active] those who are put on the map, they deserve to be in these exhibition matches and still make a lot of money after boxing. It makes me sad to see boxers who dedicate their lives to boxing, and then have no money. You risk your life in it.
I think Bivol wins again [if he has a rematch with Alvarez]. It’s lightweight; As good as Canelo is, he’s not a lightweight. He’s come up from junior middleweight; he’s a solid middleweight, and he pushed it at super average. For his size and Bivol’s style, it’s going to be a very, very similar fight.
BN: What do you think of domestic rival Joshua Buatsi’s performance against Pawel Stepien?
I see the reaction to the fight. A lot of people tweeted to me, “Yarde will mop the floor with Buatsi; it was an easy fight for Yarde.” I don’t pay attention to that, because style makes combat. I always thought I would beat Buatsi; I still think I will beat Buatsi. I know I will beat Buatsi. But there’s a lot of politics; who don’t want to lose. I haven’t watched it live, so I won’t talk about it based on other people’s opinions.
It can make the fight easier [to make, through Buatsi moving from Matchroom to BOXXER]. I want to fight again in July. A fight like Buatsi, I wish it had a good ad build. It’s a pay-per-view battle. Buatsi and I have always said that; we have actually met face to face many times; We are both from London. We both know by our energy we will fight each other. We’ve always said that. I was so excited when that happened. We never quarreled. When you come from London and you’ve been around for a bit, you’ll naturally respect that you’ve chosen that certain way of life. I respect what he did – he went to the Olympics and other things. He respects my efforts and the way I rose from nowhere.
BN: How did you feel about Beterbiev vs Callum Smith?
I thought Betterbiev would stop him, but there it was. How much did I take from Betterbiev? He even said after the game, “You hit me and I feel dizzy”. [Smith’s] loser but he is a good fighter. He’s long; trivial; has a good left hook. Will it be enough for Betterbiev? I do not think so.
BN: Your friend and stable friend Ohara Davies are trying to fight Rolando “Rolly” Romero…
I was there [when they sparred]. This is where people talk about Romero. “He knocks everyone out in the gym.” Ohara actually said, “I want to fight you”. Ohara is calling everyone in the gym. Everybody. How the match ended when Rolly Romero tripped in the ring. He basically stopped him, and then they said, “Yeah, that’s enough”. He got out of it. It’s also not too late in spar. If the spar continues, he will knock him out. It is competition in the sense that Romero is moving forward. But he got stabbed a lot. He just got caught with a horrifying shot. I really want them to fight. I know they’re trying to get Ohara out of the way of fighting Ryan Garcia, which makes sense in terms of money, but if Ohara was like me he’d say, “Fuck.” I think he won it.
Anthony Yarde and his coach, Tunde Ajayi
