Benavidez Motivated, But Yarde Looms As His Biggest Threat

David Benavidez says he’s “motivated” for his fight against Anthony Yarde this Saturday because of his punching power and hunger in their 12-round main event on DAZN PPV in Riyadh.

Yarde’s Power: The Equalizer

WBC light heavyweight champion Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) is seen as vulnerable going into this fight with Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) after the war he had against David Morrell last February.

Yarde, 34, can potentially finish what the Cuban Morrell started when he battered Benavidez in a losing effort. Did Morrell take something from Benavidez that isn’t coming back? Those shots that he hit Benavidez with had him hurt repeatedly, down on the canvas in the 11th round. His face was in poor condition, resembling Dr. Frankenstein’s monster by the end.

Yarde could take full advantage of the situation if there are echoes still inside Benavidez’s from the huge shots that Morrell landed.

Benavidez is finally all healed up now from the Morrell fight and will be looking to make a statement on Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season card at the ANB Arena in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Stakes: Canelo, Bivol, Beterbiev

Benavidez must win to secure the lucrative fights he’s targeting against these names:

• Canelo Alvarez
• Dmitry Bivol
• Artur Beterbiev
• Terence Crawford

There’s a lot at stake for ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez in this fight on Saturday against Yarde. What happens if Benavidez loses? He can say goodbye to the mega-money fights against Canelo, Bivol, and Beterbiev. Those Saudi paydays would vanish.  They couldn’t wait for Benavidez to go through a time-consuming rebuild job. Benavidez could forget about 38-year-old Crawford, too, because he’s not going to be around for much longer.

“Stylistically. He’s Mexican,” said Anthony Yarde to DAZN Boxing when asked how David Benavidez is different from the two former light heavyweight champions he lost to, Artur Beterbiev and Sergey Kovalev. “But in terms of his boxing ability and the way he fights, I feel he has the best punch selection out of the three.

‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez fights nothing like Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev. There is nothing similar to his style to theirs. He’s a volume puncher who focuses on throwing speedy combinations, and he doesn’t mind getting hit to land his own shots.

As we saw in Benavidez’s last two fights against Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, that style is now starting to cost Benavidez, given that he’s fighting at 175. He was forced to go the full 12 rounds against both of those fighters, and he took a career’s worth of punishment in them. They definitely got their pound of flesh in those contests.

Late-Round Trouble Ahead

If Yarde can take Benavidez into the later rounds, he’s got a chance of winning due to his power and the fatigue factor. ‘The Mexican Monster’ looked exhausted in the championship rounds against Morrell and Gvozdyk.

“I think I hit harder,” said Yarder when asked what he does better than Benavidez.

One could tell from looking at Benavidez’s face that he didn’t like it when Yarde said he hits harder than him. He seems to lack self-awareness, not realizing that the 24 knockouts that he accumulated at 168 were due to his massive size advantage over his smaller opponents rather than his power.

“He thinks he hits harder than me. This guy has tremendous power. He has great boxing ability. He has a great hook. I’ve checked everything. He does a lot of things good. So, I’ve got to be on my P’s and Q’s. I got to be 110%,” said Benaviez. “That’s why I’m so motivated for this fight because this guy is super hungry.”

The Truth About Benavidez’s Power

It’s not just Yarde who thinks he hits harder than Benavidez. It’s the fans. They believe it too, but other fighters at 175 clearly hit harder than him. Sooner or later, Benavidez is going to have to understand that he’s not a puncher in this weight class. It would be better if he knew sooner rather than later.

Some fans believe Benavidez’s power at light heavyweight is roughly equivalent to that of these fringe contenders:

• Willy Hutchinson
• Zach Parker
• Ben Whittaker
• Malik Zinad

The big power guys in the 175 division are these fighters: Imam Khataev, Artur Beterbiev, Joshua Buatsi, and Callum Smith.