Benavidez struggles with weight: Yarde smells blood

David Benavidez claims “the weight loss was easy for him” and has gone down to 175 for his fight against Anthony Yarde tonight in Riyadh. ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) looked drained all week, showing that making weight was anything but “easy” for him.

Yarde shows up shredded

For the record, Benavidez weighed in at 174.3 pounds Friday for his WBC light heavyweight title defense tonight against Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Yarde weighed 173.9 pounds and looked polished, showing no signs of being drained. Indeed, looked ready to step into the ring at the weigh-in.

Benavidez says that the weight loss was so easy, he believes he will have “extra energy” tonight. We’ll see about that, as he didn’t look like a fighter who would be at full strength after cutting weight. Chris Williams smells upset.

Yarde’s third time charm?

“To take on the win, and I want to do it in an explosive way, an exciting way, and it’s going to be historic because that’s him,” Anthony Yarde said. DAZN Boxing about his fight tonight against David Benavidez.

Yarde looked better than he did in his two previous attempts at a world title in his fights against Artur Beterbiev and Sergey Kovalev. He may finally have luck on his side tonight.

“There’s a lot of talent on this card, but I’m going to go in there and steal the show by having the best fight of the night,” said Benavidez. “David Benavidez is going to have the best performance of the night, and I’m going to walk out there with both my titles still on my arm.”

It’s going to take a lot for Benavidez to surpass the undercard fighters in tonight’s career. There are some excellent talents on the card who are good enough to headline.

In Benavidez’s two fights since moving up to 175 in 2024, he hasn’t looked impressive against David Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk. He gassed out late in both fights, showed little power and was injured. If he acts like this tonight, he won’t “steal the show” from anyone.

Benavidez’s “Easy Cut”

“There was no strategy behind it. The weight reduction was easy. i feel good I conserved a lot of energy. I really didn’t have to do too much to get the weight down to 175. So, I feel good. I can use the extra energy in the fight,” Benavidez said.

If Benavidez loses or looks bad to win, he should consider moving up to cruiserweight to make it easier for him to make weight. He’s looked like a zombie all week, and he can’t afford to in this division loaded with big punchers.