Sometimes all of a sudden a boxer appears on a television screen usually on the undercard of a main event and you wonder to yourself “where has this guy been hiding?”

Even though he had only twelve amateur fights ANTHONY YARDE, 16-0 (15), could be a force soon in the light heavyweight rankings. He is from Essex, UK, and 27 years of age. His trainer is Babatunde Ajayi.

Yarde’s 6:00 and in his last encounter came in at 174 ¼ in June of 2018 against Poland southpaw Dariusz Sek, 27-3-3 (9). He had Sek down in the first round from a left hand. He eventually stopped him in the 7th round. In his ninth fight he finally faced someone with a decent record in Hungarian Ferenc Albert, 22-10, of Romania, stopping him in 1:36 of the first round. All of Yarde’s fights have been in the UK.

In Yarde’s twelfth bout he stop another Hungarian at 2:28 if the first round who was Richard Baranyi, 18-1, the Hungarian champion in a WBO European title match. Another Hungarian to bite the dust was Norbert “Noble” Nemesapati, 25-6, at the end of the third round. At stake were the WBO Euro title and the WBO inter-continental titles.

In December of 2017 Yarde was the first to stop Serbia’s Nikola Sjekloca, 32-4-1, in the 4th round having dropped him in the second and fourth rounds. Yarde’s first start in 2018 was in February stopping France’s Tony Averlant, 26-9-2, whom he had down twice in the 6th round and he failed to come out at the end of the 7th round.

In Yarde’s last performance in June he stopped southpaw Darius Sek as mentioned earlier. That was his fourteenth consecutive stoppage. Yarde is ranked No. 2 in the WBO rankings behind No. 1 Marcus Browne of the US. Yarde is No. 8 in the IBO.

In the Cruiserweight division is Aleksei Papin, 10-0 (9), of Reutov, Russia. He is 6:01 and weighed 198 ¾ and in half of his fights he has been over 200 with 205 the highest. He is a two-time Kick Boxing World champion first in 2011 in the WAKO tournament and again in 2013 in the WAKO-PRO tournament.

Papin is 30 years of age having turned to boxing in 2015 and in his sixth bout stopped Argentina’s Sergio Alberto “El Condor” Anjel, 12-1-1, at 2:04 of the 1st round. In his next fight against another Argentinian who at 6:06 was Rogelio Omar “El Pequendo” Rossi, 19-5-1, who he knocked out in two rounds.

Another Argentinian was next in southpaw Marcos Antonio “El Flaco” Aumada, 17-4, knocking him out in the 4th round. In November of 2017 Papin stepped up his competition in knocking out Ukraine’s Ismayl Sillakh, 25-4, in 2:07 of the first round. Sillakh was 302-16 in the amateurs and as a pro held the WBO Asian and now living in CA held the NABF title.

In Papin’s last appearance in late June he stopped Willbeforce “Black Mamba” Shihepo, 25-9, of Nambia, who was knocked down in the first and 7th rounds finally stopped in the 8th round. The vacant IBF International title was at stake. He is 28th ranked in the IBO.

He is promoted by Aleksey Stashkov of world Boxing. His manager is Dimitry Ivanov and trained by Andrei Ivichuk, of the UK.

In the heavyweight division we have 2012 Olympian Ivan Dychko, 7-0 (7), of KAZ, living in Kissimmee, FL. At 6:09 he came in at 241 ½ in his last encounter in July. He is 28 years of age.

In the Olympics Dychko defeated Simon Kean of Canada 20-6. Kean is now 15-0 (14) as a pro. Then in the semi-final Dychko fell to current world champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Anthony “AJ” Joshua by 31-11, and settled for the Bronze Medal. He split with current China boxer Zhang Zhilei, 19-0 (15), as a pro. He also defeated Filip Hrgovic, 5-0, of Croatia in the pro ranks who was a Bronze Medalist in the 2016 Olympics losing to the UK’s Joe Joyce in the semi-final’s. All of his fights have been in Russia. He is No. 92 in the IBO rankings.

Another heavyweight is China’s Junlong “Dragon King” Zhang, 19-0 (19), of Quingdao, China. He is a 6:03 ½ southpaw. His manager is Yanxuan Yanxuan.

Zhang is the WBA Oceania champion with six title defenses to his credit. He is 36 years old and the former Chinese amateur champion. Only one of his opponents last more than three rounds. That was Indonesia’s Nicco Tori, 27-16-3, who he knocked out in the 5th round in June.

Other KO victims include Bolvia’s champion Saul Farah, 62-20-3, US’s Jason Gavern, 26-17-4, Brazil’s George Arias, 56-15, Brazil’s Pedro Otis, 30-3, South Africa’s Osborne “Big Daddy” Machimana, 22-9-2, who has a KO1 over former world champion Corrie Sanders.

In Zhang’s last fight in December of 2017 he Argentina’s Victor Emilio “El Tyson del Abasto, 22-3-1, Ramirez in one round. In Ramirez’s previous world title challenge against IBF & WBA world champion Denis Lebedev, he was stopped in two rounds.

Zhang is No. 18 in the IBO and No. 6 in the WBO.