Benavidez motivated, but Yarde looms as his biggest threat

David Benavidez says he is “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 considered vulnerable going into this fight with Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) after the war he had against David Morrell last February.

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

Yarde can take full advantage of the situation if there are still echoes in Benavidez’s of the big shots Morrell landed.

Benavidez is now finally fully healed 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 needs to win to secure the lucrative fights he’s targeting against these names:

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

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

“Stylistically. He’s Mexican,” Anthony Yarde says DAZN Boxing when asked how David Benavidez differs 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 punching option of the three.

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

As we saw in Benavidez’s last two fights against Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, that style is starting to cost Benavidez now 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 certainly got their pound of flesh in those games.

Late-round trouble ahead

If Yarde can take Benavidez in the later rounds, he has a chance to win because of 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.

Looking at Benavidez’s face, you could tell he didn’t like it when Yarde said he was hitting harder than him. He seems to lack self-awareness and not realize that the 24 knockouts he racked up at 168 were due to his massive size advantage over his smaller opponents rather than his strength.

“He thinks he hits harder than me. This man has tremendous power. He has great boxing ability. He has a great hook. I checked everything. He is doing very well. So, I have to be on my P’s and Q’s. I have to be 110%,” says Benaviez. “That’s why I’m so motivated for this fight, because this guy is very 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 will have to understand that he is not a puncher in this weight class. It would be better if he knew sooner rather than later.

Some fans believe that Benavidez’s power at light heavyweight is more or less equal to that of these fringe contenders:

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

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