The inquest into Anthony Yarde's setback upset by Lyndon Arthur will address lingering doubts as to whether he is doing enough proper sparring to ever realise his potential for winning the world light-heavyweight title.

Yarde has remained steadfastly loyal to Tunde Ajayi through his career thus far. But the pressure is on after Arthur the underdog outpointed him despite injuring his right hand while warming up in the dressing room before Saturday night's fight at Westminster's Church House.

Promoter Frank Warren immediately addressed the question of trainer Tunde Ajayi's unorthodox methods by warning: 'I will be having a word.' 

Warren's US counterpart Bob Arum was more direct a year ago, after Yarde came tantalising close to upsetting renowned puncher Sergy Kovalev in Russia only to be knocked out in the 11th round of that world championship fight: 'Yarde has the talents but he needs a new trainer. He didn't have a clue that he was physically under-prepared. You can't win big fights without sparring.'

If Arum was British, he might have added that this is akin to a footballer spurning practice matches prior to Premier League games. 

And Yarde actually looked like he was catching up on his sparring through the first half of the fight against Arthur, in which he failed to win any of the seven opening rounds in my view and that of many others present.

A second half comeback including a barn-storming last round fell short of the knock-out he needed and the 117-111 scoring in Yarde's favour by Ian John-Lewis is another blot on the reputation of judges. Michael Alexander and Marcus McDonnel both had it 115-114 to Arthur. My card: 115-113.

Scrutiny of Yarde's corner will be sharpened by their twice failing to put his gum-shield in place at the start of rounds. Nor did their seem to be much technical advice on the need to up his game.

His route back into championship contention may include a rematch but there will have to be significant improvement if he is to reverse that split decision. Not least since Arthur is unlikely to suffer again the freak pre-fight accident which reduced him to minimal use of his right hand. 

As a consequence he produced a carbon-copy of the jab, jab, jab performance with which Joe Joyce shocked heavyweight prodigy Daniel Dubois in the same house a week earlier.

Further rebuttal of criticism for Dubois taking a knee in the tenth round, with his left eye swollen shut, has come with specialist confirmation that he had suffered fractures of two orbital bones and that any further damage or retinal bleeding would have threatened his sight and his career.

In America, Errol Spence Jr - who had miraculously survived an horrific car crash - has proved the value of living to fight another day. 

Fourteen months after going into intensive care after what he admitted was a high-speed accident of his own making, Spence comprehensively out-pointed Danny Garcia in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium to retain his WBC and IBF world welterweight titles.

'I almost threw everything away,' says Spence. 'My career, my life. I'm back, thank God. I've learned. Be patient with me.' Next? Maybe Manny Pacquiao.