Anthony Yarde withdraws from Saturday return with tooth abscess

Two pieces of bad news for Anthony Yarde fans. For one, he’s sticking with controversial trainer/manager Tunde Ajayi despite the latter’s infamously poor performance in Yarde’s loss to Lyndon Arthur. For two, he’s withdrawn from Saturday’s bout with Emin Atra due to a tooth abscess.

“I am frustrated but it is what it is and I won’t rush anything,” said the light heavyweight on his dental treatment. “It just makes me even more eager to get back out.

“It should take about two weeks, the tooth is next to my canine so I am going to have to use a denture for a little while before having an implant. I definitely won’t be out for long.

“The dentist lady literally laughed when I told her I had a fight coming up! She said if I got hit there – I joked that I don’t get hit… – because it is nerve endings, it could swell up in a way that is uncontrollable.

“It is one of those things and I have just got to deal with it.”

According to Frank Warren, “the fight will go ahead on one of [their] forthcoming shows.” Presumably, the goal is still to stage a Yarde-Arthur rematch later this year and/or get the freshly signed Callum Johnson into the mix.