David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde Live Winners and Losers, Results
The transformation of boxing as we've recently known it continued Saturday.
Six sanctioning body titles were on the line as part of the sport's latest encounter with Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Season, headlined by WBC light heavyweight champ David Benavidez making his first defense against fourth-ranked contender Anthony Yarde.
Benavidez, who was elevated to full-fledged WBC status seven months ago, was 30-0 with 24 KOs and had previous title-level experience at 168 pounds, where he had two reigns as WBC champion between 2017 and 2020.
Also defending a title at ANB Arena in Riyadh was WBO welterweight claimant Brian Norman, who met former 135- and 140-pound king Devin Haney.
Meanwhile, Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez and Fernando Martinez met to unify the WBA, WBC and WBO titles at 115 pounds, and top contenders Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes got together for the vacant WBO championship at 135.
B/R's combat team was in place to take in all the main-card action and delivered a real-time list of the show's definitive winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
Winner: Joining the Club
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Benavidez wanted to be labeled an authentic title claimant at 175 pounds.
Which meant, given recent realities, that he had to stop Yarde.
The 34-year-old Englishman positioned himself as a championship-level gatekeeper in the weight class over several years, winning everything on the regional stage but losing by KOs in top-tier tries against Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev.
Well, you can go ahead and welcome the "Mexican Monster" to the club, too.
Benavidez beat Yarde into competitive oblivion with perpetual motion as opposed to brute force, landing increasingly violent combinations as the fight evolved and ultimately getting an intervention from referee Hector Afu at 1:59 of Round 7.
"This is what I dreamt of," Benavidez said after his 25th KO in 31 career victories. "He stepped into the Monster's world and he got KO'd. They said I couldn't stop that guy and I had no power at '75, but I made it look easier than Kovalev and Beterbiev."
Yarde was scraped and swollen around his eyes and bleeding heavily from his nose at the fight's halfway point and the end came soon after, following yet another hard combination punctuated by a left hook that stiffened the challenger and prompted Afu's rescue.
But rather than call for a shot at Beterbiev or the Russian's recent conqueror in Dmitry Bivol, Benavidez broke news that he'll climb to cruiserweight to challenge Gilberto Ramirez for that division's WBA and WBO belts on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Ramirez also fought at 168 and 175—losing a title try against Bivol in 2022—before moving up and beginning his reign at 200 pounds 20 months ago.
Loser: Maintaining Momentum
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Everything was going Haney's way. And we do mean everything.
The former two-division champ was slicker and sharper than the robotic Norman in the first round, then dumped him with a hard left-right in the second and seemed just a shot or two away from as shocking a title-fight KO as we've seen in a while.
But then, in the time it took for Haney's father, Bill, to say "you can beat him with one hand," the career-reviving momentum vanished.
The sort-of unbeaten 27-year-old—punched silly by Ryan Garcia last year before the "King's" failed drug test provided an asterisk—eschewed the right and began relying almost exclusively on left jabs and hooks the rest of the way, sucking the intrigue out of the room and allowing Norman to get it to the judges after a tedious second half.
Haney earned scores of 114-113, 117-110 and 116-111 for his 10th win by decision since his last KO, a fourth-round finish of Zaur Abdullaev in 2019.
"After I hurt him and dropped him, he made an adjustment, so we had to adjust to that as well," Haney said. "We readjusted and racked up those rounds."
One-sided? Yes. Impressive? Sure. But must-see TV? Not so much.
At least not to Conor Benn, who's ranked sixth or better by two sanctioning bodies.
"It wasn't really a great performance," Benn said. "(Haney) looked scared of his own shadow. There was no entertainment in there and this is an entertainment business."
Winner: A Case for Climbing
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The guys atop B/R's pound-for-pound list—with names like Crawford, Inoue, Usyk and Bivol—are there for a reason, and it's hard to imagine them ceding their position.
But if one of them slips, Rodriguez certainly seems ready to seize the moment.
The popular Texan made a strong case for elevation in his main-card slot, comprehensively outclassing a fellow 115-pound champion in Martinez while adding the veteran's WBA title belt to his own WBC and WBO straps with a 10th-round KO.
"I'm trying not to diminish a champion like 'Puma' Martinez, but this was just another class of skill," analyst and former 154-pound champ Sergio Mora said. "(Rodriguez) was like a matador waiting to spear the bull, and the matador always wins these kids of competitions. That was a one-sided championship sparring session."
Indeed, there was little reason to believe Martinez had a chance from the opening bell as Rodriguez was faster, sharper and busier while peppering his slower, more methodical foe with hard, straight shots to the head and body. Martinez was bloodied early, hurt badly to body in the third, and nearly dropped with a left to the jaw in the ninth.
Another left dropped him early in the 10th and he showed little ability, or will, to rise.
Now 25, Rodriguez was the first fighter born in the 2000s to win a significant title belt when he beat Carlos Cuadras at 115 in 2022, then dropped to 112 for a two-fight reign in 2023.
He returned to 115 with a seventh-round KO of Juan Francisco Estrada in 2024 and perhaps the three-belt haul on Saturday will prompt a rise to 118 or even 122, where the aforementioned Inoue, now 31-0 with 27 KOs, resides.
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Winner: Leveling Up
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He didn't get an early KO or put on a prolonged boxing clinic.
Still, what Mason did while surviving and ultimately thriving against rugged English rival Noakes was worth far more than the WBO lightweight trinket he earned.
Oh sure, the 21-year-old from Cleveland displayed the quick feet and sublime skills that titillate his casual fans, but his heart and toughness and willingness to exchange heavy shots in close won over the harder to please tough-guy set, too.
"He has all the skills to be a perfect boxer," Mora said, "but he likes to fight."
Competing outside North America for the first time, Mason began the 12-rounder with the athleticism that had helped him to 19 wins against middling competition, but he stayed sturdy when Noakes provided resistance and continued to deliver stinging blows long after seeing rounds seven and beyond for the first time as a pro.
It was reminiscent of a vintage Hector Camacho, ex-Ring Magazine editor-in-chief Randy Gordon told Bleacher Report, and the decision—by scores of 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113—made Mason the youngest recognized champion in the sport at 21 years, seven months and 17 days.
Camacho also became a champion at age 21 and had belts at three weights at 26.
"I love the fact that Mason went right after this guy, no sticking and moving," blow-by-blow man Todd Grisham said. "He grabbed the fight by the scruff of the neck."
Full Card Results
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Main Card
David Benavidez def. Anthony Yarde by TKO, 1:59, Round 7
Devin Haney def. Brian Norman Jr. by unanimous decision (114-113, 117-110, 116-111)
Jesse Rodriguez def. Fernando Martinez by KO, 1:25, Round 10
Abdullah Mason def. Sam Noakes by unanimous decision (117-111, 115-113, 115-113)
Preliminary Card
Vito Mielnicki Jr. def. Samuel Nmomah by TKO, 3:09, Round 9
Juan Pérez Guerito def. Barker Ssewanyana by unanimous decision (40-35, 40-35, 40-35)
Sultan Almohammed def. Umesh Chavan by TKO, 2:05, Round 1
Mohammed Alakel def. Jiaming Li by unanimous decision (60-53, 60-53, 60-53)
Pius Mpenda drew with Julio Porras Ruiz by unanimous decision (57-57, 57-57, 57-57)
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