Durelle grew up in a family of fourteen children, in Baie-Ste-Anne, a small Acadian fishing village on Miramichi Bay on the Atlantic coast.

[1] By August 1950, Yvon showed only one defeat in twenty three starts, the lone blemish a loss by disqualification, to Billy Snowball.

A large fan following in Chatham, one in Newcastle and as well in Fredericton resulted in a groundswell of popularity as his victories eventually made him one of the top ranked middleweight fighters in Canada.

The following year, he fought outside his native Canada for the first time, going to Brooklyn, New York to fight Floyd Patterson, an up-and-coming American Golden Gloves champion.

In a fight most experts say he won handily, Durelle was given only a draw against the heavily favored Anthony but it elevated him to the number 3 ranking in the world.

In one of the first fights broadcast coast-to-coast on American television, Durelle stunned boxing patrons by knocking the champion down 3 times in the first round.

"[7] Six months later, in June 1959, at Durelle's home village of Baie-Ste-Anne, thirty-five fishermen died when they were swept out to sea by 40-foot tidal waves that pounded the wharf.

Distraught at the loss of friends and relatives, in August he lost in a world title fight rematch with Archie Moore by a third-round knockout.

Retired in his native village, a small museum with souvenirs of his twenty-year boxing career was built attached to his home where he and his wife of more than fifty years greeted fans who still showed up to see the New Brunswick boxer.