David Benavidez will be facing a British opponent in his next fight — but not the one who was expected.
Benavidez is scheduled to make the first defense of his WBC light heavyweight title against Anthony Yarde on a Riyadh Season card in November, Turki Alalshikh confirmed Thursday.
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“The Monster” was in advanced negotiations for a fight with WBO interim champion Callum Smith, but those talks ultimately failed, and so a deal with Yarde was finalized instead. While Yarde is in the top 10 at 175 pounds, a fight between Benavidez and Smith would’ve seen the consensus Nos. 3 and 4 fighters in the division pitted against each other.
Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) twice held the WBC super middleweight title between 2017-20, but lost it outside the ring on both occasions. In 2023, Benavidez proved himself to be a formidable challenger for undisputed champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by beating Caleb Plant and Demetrius Andrade. But with Alvarez uninterested in facing Benavidez, the latter was forced to move up to light heavyweight.
After picking up the WBC interim title against Oleksandr Gvozdyk in June 2024, Benavidez had to get off the floor to defeat the WBA (Regular) champion David Morrell in a thriller in February. Now that Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol are expected to fight for a third time, Benavidez has to once again wait his turn.
With Benavidez’s next fight scheduled for a Riyadh Season show, which hosted the two Beterbiev-Bivol fights, the chances of seeing the winner of the trilogy face Benavidez have increased substantially.
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Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) is a former two-time light heavyweight title challenger. The Brit was stopped in both championship attempts: by Sergey Kovalev in 2019 and by Beterbiev in 2023. Yarde was last in action when he edged Lyndon Arthur to lead their rivalry, 2-1.
Alalshikh announced Sunday that Brian Norman Jr. would defend his WBO welterweight title against two-division world champion Devin Haney on a Riyadh Season card in November. Both Benavidez vs. Yarde and Haney vs. Norman are expected to take place on the same card.
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