The highly anticipated Ring IV card takes place on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The card will feature four world championship fights, each of which is interesting in its own way. On a card billed as Night of Champions, seven of the eight fighters in the four championship bouts have no losses on their records.
(Credit: Queensberry/Leigh Dawney)
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The main event will feature David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KO) defending his WBA Light Heavyweight Championship against two-time title challenger Anthony Yarde (27-3, 24 KO). Benavidez has spent most of his career in the super middleweight division, beating every opponent put in front of him. Benavidez was a two-time champion at 168 pounds, with a positive cocaine test the only bump in the road through the super middleweight division.
After his victory over Demetrius Andrade in November 2023, and tired of waiting for Canelo Alvarez to agree to step in the ring with him, Benavidez opted to move up to the light heavyweight division and test himself at the 175-pound limit. With wins over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell, Benavidez captured the WBA Light Heavyweight Championship. For his third fight at 175 pounds, Benavidez gets a chance to headline a mammoth event and face a legitimate, battle-tested light heavyweight hankering for championship gold.
For Anthony Yarde, this match is his last chance at a world championship. The 34-year-old Briton has lost his two previous attempts to capture a world championship, falling by knockout to Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev. He hopes to gain experience from his previous title trials and prevail in the championship rounds.
Benavidez indicated on Tuesday that he still believes a fight with Canelo Alvarez will happen later. “Canelo knows that I don’t play games with him. I don’t play games with anybody. If anything, he knows that this fight between me and him is inevitable, and when it happens, it’s going to be like an Oscar De La Hoya vs. Chavez.”
Despite this being only Benavidez’s third fight at light heavyweight, it looks like he has something bigger in mind with another Mexican superstar should he prevail on Saturday. Benavidez’s father and trainer, David Benavidez Sr., said initial discussions have taken place about his son moving up to cruiserweight and challenging unified champion Gilberto Ramirez in a Mexican superfight on Cinco de Mayo weekend. It will be a great fight and spectacle. Anthony Yarde would love nothing more than to prevent that from happening by upsetting Benavidez.
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Devin Haney (32-0, 15 KO, 1 NC) will take on WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. (28-0, 22 KO, 2 NC) in an intriguing showdown. Norman is young, athletic and powerful, but Devin Haney will be the most skilled fighter Norman has faced thus far. Facing Norman will be Haney’s first fight at 147 pounds after winning championships in the junior lightweight and lightweight divisions. Despite all of his accomplishments, legitimate questions exist about where Devin Haney’s ability and mindset are right now.
The turning point of Haney’s career came in his controversial April 2024 fight against longtime amateur rival Ryan Garcia; Haney suffered three takedowns in a close loss to Garcia.
The fight was ultimately ruled a no-contest after Garcia tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. While Haney preserved his undefeated record, the feeling of how that fight played out remained.
Haney has fought just once since then, in May against Jose Ramirez in Times Square on the Ring II card. Even though he won comfortably on all three scorecards, Haney was underwhelming; in twelve rounds, he threw 70 of a mere 224 punches (throwing an average of one punch every 9.6 seconds).
In July, during the introductory press conference for this card in Times Square, Haney seemed to be trying to convince himself that he was the same man who had beaten all competitors at his two previous weight classes. After two underwhelming performances, will Haney be back to his best in a new weight class against a young, talented champion?
Decatur, Georgia native Brian Norman Jr. will turn 25 years old the day after he defends the WBO welterweight championship against Haney. Norman showed impressive striking power in claiming the welterweight championship, most notably in his last fight, a 5th round demolition of Jin Sasaki in Japan. Haney admits Norman has striking power, but Haney believes there are levels in the fight game, and he will show Norman that he is not at his level. With the skill level of these two fighters and the multiple ways this fight could go, this should be the fight of the night and could really go either way.
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England’s Sam Noakes (17-0, 15 KO) and Cleveland’s Abdullah Mason (19-0, 17 KO) will face off for the vacant WBO lightweight championship. Mason is only 21 years old, but the best prospect comes in to hand Noakes his first loss and win the vacant world lightweight championship. Mason hopes to join Shawn Porter and Mickey Bey as Northeast Ohio’s third world champion in the last eleven years.
For Noakes, it will be the first time he has been an underdog in his career. He doesn’t seem to mind the distinction. “If you’re made the underdog, it’s just based on what somebody else thinks, isn’t it? I’ll let them think what they want and then I’ll change their minds on November 22nd, don’t worry about it.”
Mason signed with Top Rank when he turned pro four years ago. He is incredibly talented and already very PR savvy, a significant 1-2 combination to achieve boxing stardom. Another way to reach stardom is to face and beat an opponent earmarked as the next big thing, which Noakes hopes to achieve. Whoever emerges victorious in this battle between young, undefeated hard punchers will truly have earned their first ever world championship.
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While his fight is fourth on this loaded event, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KO) may be the best boxer on this card. Rodriguez will face undefeated co-titleholder Fernando “Puma” Martinez (18-0, 9 KO) in a battle for super flyweight supremacy. Rodriguez holds the WBC and WBO super flyweight championships, with Martinez holding the WBA championship at 115 pounds.
Most observers believe Rodriguez is a top-six pound-for-pound boxer. But Martinez is a worthy challenger to Bam. Martinez showed resilience in his last fight, surviving a knockout to retain his WBA junior bantamweight championship against Kazuto Ioka. Martinez has been in the ring before with opponents expecting to use him as a stepping stone. Jerwin Ancajas and Ioka were both favored to defeat Martinez before beating each man, with Martinez winning rematches with both just for good measure.
But Rodriguez may be a different animal for Puma. At 25 years old, Rodriguez has already defeated great fighters including Juan Francisco Estrada, Carlos Cuadras, Sunny Edwards and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Rodriguez is landing 39% of his punches according to CompuBox, the highest landing percentage of any active fighter.
If Rodriguez wins, he plans to target the IBF belt holder in his next fight before moving up a higher weight class. “I’ll have two more fights at junior bantamweight maximum, and then move up. So this one, and then one more, to go undisputed.” Willibaldo Garcia and Kenshiro Teraji will face off for the IBF Championship at the next Ring Magazine-promoted event, Ring V: Night of the Samurai, on December 27th. The winner of that bout faces Bam Rodriguez in 2026 in a contest for the junior bantamweight championship. Fernando Martinez hopes to upset the apple cart again, this time to put himself one win from undisputed status at 115 pounds.
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Ring IV: Night of Champions will feature four world championship fights on Saturday with implications spanning weight classes through boxing. The card will feature young fighters trying to win their first championship: Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes. Two of the sport’s top champions, David Benavidez and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, are looking to put on solid performances before moving on to a bigger challenge. Two contenders opposing the top champions aim to pull off upsets and score career-defining victories: Fernando Martinez and Anthony Yarde. Devin Haney is looking for a world championship in a third weight class and to silence the whispers that he is no longer among boxing’s elite. Brian Norman Jr. stands in his way and tries to defend his championship and announce his arrival as one of boxing’s best.
However Ring IV plays out, Saturday night boxing fans should be the ones feeling like champions.
