Benavidez wants shootout with Yarde despite looking drained

David Benavidez says he welcomes a “shooting” Saturday night against Anthony Yarde. He says that if Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) wants to fight, he will oblige because he wants to entertain the fans in their 12-round bout on November 22 on DAZN PPV at the ANB Arena in Riyadh.

(Credit: Queensberry/Leigh Dawney)

Over 200 pounds to 175: The toll

Benvidez looks like the weight cut to get to 175 is taking a lot out of him this week. He has a stocky appearance, suggesting he started out at over 200 pounds.

Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) hopes a win over Yarde will lead to him fighting one of these three next:

• Artur Beterbiev
• Dmitry Bivol
• Canelo Alvarez

While one cannot rule out the possibility that Benavidez finally gets the Canelo fight he has been asking for all these years, it is unlikely to happen. There was an opportunity when Turki Alalshikh paid Canelo $150 million last September, but it was wasted on a fight against Terence Crawford. He should have used the money to have Canelo face Benavidez.

Still pushing Canelo after five years

It would be healthier for Benavidez to forget about Canelo, as he has sounded obsessed with him for the past five years. He pursued that fight too much, and he pushed Alvarez away with his neediness. Benavidez was too fixated on the Mexican star, and it had the opposite effect.

It is far too early for WBC light heavyweight champion Benavidez to target fights against IBF, WBA and WBO 175-lb champion Bivol or Beterbiev. Those two have yet to get healthy and fight their trilogy match. It has been 9 months since they last fought, and it may take even longer for them to recover enough to fight again.

“On the other side of this is Artur Beterbiev, Dmitri Bivol, and hopefully even a Canelo in the future,” David Benavidez said. Queensberry about what he hopes a victory over Anthony Yarde will lead to.

Benavidez needs to keep his focus on the task at hand and not overlook the dangerous puncher, Yarde. ‘The Mexican Monster’ looked far from invincible in his two fights at 175 against David Morrell and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

He may have a skewed view of how he’s performed since moving up to light heavyweight because he’s taken a career’s worth of punishment in those fights.

If Yarde can stand up to Benavidez’s high-volume machine gun combinations long enough to get his pound of flesh, he can knock him out when he gasses out. David faded at 175 in both of his fights, and he looks even more exhausted this time around.

“It’s going to be ‘The Monster’ who takes out the lion,” Benavidez said of how he views his fight with Yarde. “To beat the s*** out of everybody,” Benavidez said of what it means to be ‘The Monster.’ “For me, I feel I’m the more intelligent fighter and on a different level than Anthony Yarde. I’ve shown I’m on a higher pedigree.

Did Benavidez learn something?

“I know Anthony Yarde is going to throw some big shots. If he wants a shootout, we can do a shootout. It doesn’t scare me. That’s the type of fight I want,” Benavidez said.

Benavidez sounded confused. On one hand, he talks about changing his style to show more intelligence and avoid taking punishment like he’s taken since moving up to 175. But on the other hand, he talks about how he’d be happy to engage in a “shootout” if that’s what Yarde wants. He doesn’t learn from his past.

Sooner or later, Benavidez is going to get knocked out if he doesn’t adjust his fighting style. That could happen this Saturday, as Yarde will come full bore after him, looking to finish what Morrell started last February.

“This is going to be the beginning of my dominance in the light heavyweight division,” said Benavidez.