KO king can go the extra Yarde in many sports
ANTHONY YARDE could have been scoring goals in the Championship or tries in the Premiership.
He might have been shooting hoops in the National Basketball League or aiming for a spot on the Great Britain team bound for the 2020 Olympics.
But, instead, and thanks largely to the broken big toe he suffered eight years ago, the multi-talented sportsman (above) from Hackney, east London, ended up earning his crust in the hardest game of all.
The 25-year-old chose to focus on his one true sporting love – boxing – and a professional record of 11 and 0, combined with explosive displays, suggests he made the right call.
Trial
Arsenal fan Yarde said: “When I was young – I’m talking 14, 15, 16 – I was doing different sports.
“I was into athletics at Tessa Sanderson’s academy, playing football for Bishop’s Stortford.
“And I was also playing basketball for Newham and had trials at Harlequins.
“Yet slowly, but surely, I was dropping out of those sports until I was just left with football.
“And it got to the stage where I went on trial with QPR and I broke my toe, so that brought an end to my football career.
“It happened in a trial game, I’d scored a goal and, around three minutes later, I blocked a clearance and someone trod on my foot.
“They loved the way I’d played, but I was going to be out for around six months while it healed.
“I was really upset, that was my big chance gone.
Stoppage
“I stopped doing football, but then I found the sport I was looking for – boxing.”
Yarde entered the paid ranks two years ago and, since then, only one of his bouts has gone the distance.
Now, he is hoping for another stoppage on July 8 when he faces Richard Baranyi at London’s Copper Box Arena, with the Hungarian’s WBO European light-heavyweight crown on the line.
Yarde recalls: “The fight I lost as an amateur happened because I didn’t want to knock the guy out.
“I won every round, I knocked him down, but I backed off stopping him.
“The referee raised his hand at the end and no one in the hall clapped – no one could believe it.
“That is what motivated me to become a knockout artist. I still go for the knockouts as a professional, but I take my time... and then knock them out.”