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Boxing
David Benavidez pummels Anthony Yarde in seventh-round TKO, confirms opponent for Cinco de Mayo weekend
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“The Mexican Monster” continues to roar all over the light heavyweight division and is now mashing the gas pedal to become the face of boxing.
After systematically breaking down Anthony Yarde with a high volume of punches toward a seventh-round TKO victory in defense of his WBC light heavyweight world title Saturday night, Benavidez let the boxing world in on a little secret.
“I got some news for you guys,” a victorious Benavidez started saying live on DAZN Pay-Per-View from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “May 2 — me versus [Gilberto] ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. I’m going up to cruiserweight to challenge for his titles, so I’m excited for that.”
Benavidez added that he thinks the Cinco de Mayo weekend fight will take place in Las Vegas as he will momentarily shift from plans to reach undisputed glory at 175 pounds for an opportunity to snatch Ramirez’ unified WBA and WBO cruiserweight crown.
This comes after Benavidez proved to be levels above a game, powerful Yarde on Saturday night.
Benavidez force-fed the British fighter an all-you-can-eat buffet of clean punches for the nearly seven rounds the bout lasted.
When Yarde surprised Benavidez with a lunging right hand to start the sixth round and seemed to be scrapping his way back into the fight, the champion adjusted and pummeled Yarde, leaving him bleeding from his nose and mouth.
Literally seeing red in the seventh, Benavidez turned up the volume some more by trapping Yarde and unloading punches until the light heavyweight was left slumped in the corner for a knockdown.
Though the referee penalized Benavidez a point for hitting Yarde with an extra punch while the British fighter was down, it didn’t make much of a difference. Benavidez overwhelmed Yarde with another barrage of punches before a vicious left hook prompted the ref to end the punishment and stop the bout for the monstrous seventh-round TKO.
“I made it look easier than I would say than [Sergey] Kovalev and [Artur] Beterbiev,” Benavidez said, referring to Yarde’s past two failed attempts at becoming a light heavyweight world champion.
Whether his days at light heavyweight are permanently done remains to be seen, but Benavidez certainly used Saturday night as a statement to launch himself into position to vie for half of the hardware at cruiserweight in a Cinco de Mayo weekend slot that Canelo Alvarez has owned through the years.
