Anthony Yarde stopped in eighth round by brilliant Artur Beterbiev

Anthony Yarde failed in his against-the-odds bid to become a unified world champion after he was stopped in the eighth round by Artur Beterbiev in a thrilling contest at Wembley Arena.

Londoner Yarde hoped home advantage and an electric atmosphere would propel him to the WBO, WBC and IBF world light-heavyweight titles on Saturday night.

But the brilliant Beterbiev proved too strong for his 31-year-old opponent – seven years his junior – as the Montreal-based Russian took his 19th victory when Yarde’s corner called off the fight.

Beterbiev told BT Sport: “I can’t say I did a bad fight, but if I do again, I want to do better. But I feel good.

“Anthony did [punch hard]. Anthony is 31, he’s young. He has time I think, and I hope he will do well in the future.

“If I’m being honest, every punch he did, for all those punches we prepared, that’s why I came back and back, because we knew, we expected those punches.”