A Quote by Anthony Yarde
I was offered the Kovalev fight in 2018 but my manager and promoter agreed it wasn't the right time for me to be challenging for a world title then. I needed a few more tuneup fights, learning fights, and I'm fine with that.
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My first MMA fight was July 2006 here in Brazil. I won a few fights here in Brazil, and then I got a chance to fight in the UFC, but they put me against the number one contender for the title at that time. It was Fabricio Werdum.
I had two managers who couldn't stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn't get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn't fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.
I see all my hard fights as title fights. Every time I go in there, I'm fighting for my life.
I can't just keep fooling around every other fight. Have a few good fights and then get unfocused again and have a couple bad fights. I really have to stay the course and stay focused.
I got messed up between my fight with Ken Norton and my fight with Larry Holmes; I got messed up with alcohol. I needed at least a year more experience, with three or four more fights before I fought Holmes. But I couldn't get any fights. Don King had all the contenders, and unless I signed myself over to him, I couldn't get a fight.
I don't need to chase titles because I've fought in so many title fights and so many title fight-level matches that if somebody thinks I need to give them a reason to give me a shot at any belt in the world, then clearly they don't know what they're about as far as MMA.
If you can believe this, I didn't fight for my first world title fight till I had 58 fights, so I really appreciated what I was fighting for and for whom as well.
I had 33 kickboxing fights, 37 MMA fights, plus 44 amateur boxing fights, which most of them were international. I will keep fighting as long as I feel good, but I will repeat once more, any fight could be the last one.
If they're not the toughest fights I can get, then give me a complete washup, someone that'll be an easy payday. But I'd rather have the toughest fights I can get so I can get to the title the fastest way possible.
The thing I learnt the most from the Kovalev fight, in all my other fights, when I hurt my opponent I was composed, but because this was such a big fight, I lost my cool, I started fighting with emotion instead of using my common sense and tactics to break him down.
I don't watch every fight; I am not huge on watching fights on TV. Because I did it my whole life. But I do watch the big fights. I follow the little fights too, sometimes; I just don't have to watch every single fight that happens.
If the fights that I take make sense, and there is not a 27-year-old number one contender in the world, then I'll probably be interested in doing fights that make sense and fights that are marketable.
I did a lot of smoker fights and fought pretty much every week since Pat wouldn't let me fight until he was sure I was ready. I was also boxing and so I had 30 unofficial fights or more of those.
We as fighters always want to fight the best possible opponents and the best fights. We want the fans and media to be excited about the fights that we have. I now believe that this is a big fight and people want to see it, I'm not sure that was the case a few years back.
I've had 12 amateur fights, 18 professional fights and I've come to Russia, not just to Russia but to Chelyabinsk, home of Sergey Kovalev who has an impressive resume. The fact I've come to his backyard means I feel it will go down as one of the best results ever.
I just want fights like that. Fights that get me excited. Fights that are going to be exciting.
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