Anthony Yarde fought fire with fire for as long as he could Saturday night in London.

Artur Beterbiev’s concussive power ultimately was too much for the brave British contender, but two judges were especially impressed with what Yarde did before Beterbiev ended their back-and-forth light heavyweight title fight in the eighth round. South Korea’s Jun Bae Lim (68-65) and New York’s Robin Taylor (67-66) both had Yarde ahead of Beterbiev on their scorecards through seven rounds in what was a fantastic action fight.

Lim scored five of the seven completed rounds for Yarde, who challenged Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) for the Russian-born, Quebec-based boxer’s IBF, WBC and WBO 175-pound championships at OVO Arena Wembley, near Yarde’s hometown of Ilford, England. Yarde (23-3, 22 KOs) won the first, second, fifth, sixth and seven rounds on Lim’s card, whereas Taylor credited the challenger for winning the first, second, third and sixth rounds of a fight in which both boxers suffered cuts – Yarde below his right eye and Beterbiev above his left eye.

France’s Jerome Lades had Beterbiev in front, 67-66, entering the eighth round of their scheduled 12-round championship match. Lades scored the second, fifth and sixth rounds for Yarde.

CompuBox counted 25 more total punches for Beterbiev (136-of-334 to 111-of-357). According to CompuBox’s unofficial tally, Beterbiev landed nine more power punches (84-of-181 to 75-of-197) and 16 more jabs (52-of-153 to 36-of-160).

krikya360.com also had Yarde ahead, 67-66, on its unofficial card after seven rounds of action.

Yarde withstood Beterbiev’s vaunted power and landed numerous flush punches of his own. In the eighth round, though, Beterbiev buzzed Yarde with a right hand to the side of his head.

Beterbiev then hit Yarde on the back of his head, which sent him to his gloves and knees with 1:25 to go in the eighth round.

Yarde slowly got to his feet and referee Steve Gray allowed their fight to continue. Once Beterbiev pounced on a vulnerable Yarde, Tunde Ajayi, Yarde’s trainer, stepped onto the ring apron and asked Gray to stop the fight while Yarde was backed against the ropes.

The official time of the stoppage was 2:01 of the eighth round.

“I can’t say I did a very bad fight,” Beterbiev told BT Sport’s Jo Ankier during his post-fight interview at ringside. “But if I could do it again, I’d do it better. But I feel good.”

The 38-year-old Beterbiev, who entered the ring as a 9-1 favorite, also credited Yarde for his performance.

“Everyone can punch hard at this level,” Beterbiev said. “And Anthony did, too. But he’s young [31]. I turned into a professional when I was 28. He has time. I hope he does well in the future.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.