{"id":174066,"date":"2025-10-02T00:59:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/174066\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T00:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:59:05","slug":"david-benavidez-wont-run-from-anything-wants-to-give-fans-fights-they-deserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/174066\/","title":{"rendered":"David Benavidez Won\u2019t Run From Anything; Wants To Give Fans Fights They Deserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Benavidez<\/a> understands as well as any boxer how frustrating it is to be avoided by a champion in a more prominent position.
Now that he is a marked man in the light heavyweight division, Benavidez is completely committed to taking risky fights, even versus lesser-known opponents fans want to see him face. Benavidez already showed such willingness when he beat previously undefeated David Morrell by unanimous decision<\/a> eight months ago in Las Vegas.
The Phoenix native wanted to challenge undisputed light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol<\/a> after he beat Morrell. Bivol surrendered his WBC 175-pound crown<\/a> to Benavidez rather than making a mandated defense against him.
Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) will likely face rival Artur Beterbiev<\/a> for the third time once he recovers from back surgery<\/a>. Benavidez embraced a dangerous alternative.
Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) and fellow former unified champ Sergey Kovalev have stopped Anthony Yarde<\/a> (27-3, 24 KOs). The British contender can punch, though, and is motivated to revive his career by upsetting Benavidez in the main event of \u201cThe Ring IV\u201d on November 22 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fine by Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), who explained his matchmaking philosophy during a recent appearance on \u201cInside The Ring,\u201d co-hosted by Max Kellerman and Mike Coppinger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about me and David Benavidez\u2019s stock, we have a lotta great fights on the table,\u201d Benavidez said. \u201cYou guys know I\u2019m gonna take every single one of \u2018em. I\u2019m not gonna run from anything, because at the end of the day this is my destiny. If it\u2019s my destiny to go through these hard fights, and win these world titles, that\u2019s what Imma do. This is what boxing is about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sick of seeing fighters getting the easiest fights, just because they\u2019re getting the biggest paychecks. It’s not even about money. It\u2019s about giving the fans of boxing the fights they deserve. They\u2019re paying the money at the end of the day \u2026 let\u2019s go to war. Let\u2019s do what these people wanna see us do, go to war and may the best man win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benavidez, 28, is a 10-1 favorite to defeat Yarde, 34, in their 12-round fight according to DraftKings.<\/p>\n

The Ring ranks Benavidez as its No. 2 contender for Bivol\u2019s title. Yarde is ranked fourth in The Ring\u2019s top 10, behind Beterbiev, Benavidez and another Brit, Callum Smith (31-2, 22 KOs), the opponent Benavidez believed he\u2019d fight November 22<\/a> before Yarde\u2019s handlers accepted Turki Alalshikh\u2019s offer.
DAZN will stream<\/a> Benavidez-Yarde following a compelling co-feature in which former undisputed lightweight champ Devin Haney<\/a> (32-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC) will challenge WBO welterweight beltholder Brian Norman Jr.<\/a> (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC).<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez understands as well as any boxer how frustrating it is to be avoided by a champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":["post-174066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-community","tag-boxing-fights","tag-boxing-history","tag-boxing-interviews","tag-boxing-magazine","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-photos","tag-boxing-rankings","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-boxing-videos","tag-boxing-results","tag-disqualification","tag-draw","tag-fight","tag-fighter","tag-fighter-news","tag-knockout","tag-latest-boxing-matches","tag-ring","tag-ring-magazine","tag-split-decision","tag-sports","tag-technical-knockout","tag-the-ring","tag-top-fighters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}