Lyndon Arthur defeated Anthony Yarde in the first fight for what was a clear controversial win for the Manchester man, and it did seem as if there were more gasps of a shock than cheers for him when the decision was announced that he had snatched a split decision.
There is still an argument that he won the fight on points, but Yarde has a right to complain and argue his side of things as it didn't look that convincingly from the judges' scorecards either as they were scored 115-114, 115-114 and 111-117. Arthur left with 345 points compared to Yarde's 342, but the controversy lies within the fact that one judge scored it with a six-point difference to the other two in favour of another fighter, which means he had Arthur winning 50% of the 12 rounds because there were no knockdowns so, therefore, no 10-8 rounds.
Regardless, the two throwdown once again following the controversy and the route to victory for the 30-year-old Mancunian is not likely to change this time around with his jab being his most dominant weapon anyhow. It was released that Arthur also injured his right hand in the lead up to the fight and thus utilized his jab more, but even if that was the case, no doubt it is his best method to victory.
This fight was also only the second time the Manchester-born had gone past six rounds as Tayar Mehmed took him the furthest into the fifth, before he met with Emmanuel Anim and Dec Spelman where he won via a unanimous decision in each.
In fact, in Arthur's last four fights, he has fought 45 rounds out of a total of 48, only not going the final three in his most recent bout with David Faraci. In this match, he did win most rounds and eventually put away the Italian after too many punches came his way, but it was far from convincing and given Yarde's vengeance here, Arthur is going to need to be careful, work behind that jab even more and head for a points win, and if a TKO/KO opportunity comes, he must take it. However, priority has to be on winning rounds again.