Saturday (22nd) saw some fantastic action in largely competitive fights from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Ring IV event gave us four world championship contests with standout performances from David Benavides, Devin Haney, Abdullah Mason and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
Pick of the bunch for competitiveness was the Abdullah Mason versus Sam Noakes fight for the WBO lightweight championship. This should be in the running for Ring Magazine ‘fight of the year’ come February as this to-ed and fro-ed throughout.
Mason from Cleveland, Ohio, USA won the fight widely on points 117-111, 115-113 (twice), but this doesn’t tell the full story. The determining factor probably being influenced by the horrific cut Maidstone, England’s Sam Noakes received over his left eye due to an unintentional clash of heads early in the fight.
Mason (20-0, 18 KOs) always looked the slicker of the two and had to dig deep to withstand the Naokes onslaught. The tough and skilled Englishman suffered his first defeat as a pro but came out with much credit and, after regrouping, will surely get another world title shot.
In victory, Mason at 21, became the youngest ‘world’ champion in boxing today. His future looks bright.
Noakes (28) meanwhile dropped to 17-1 with 15 KOs.
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (26-0, 23 KOs) registered an almost complete shutout against teak tough Argentinian Fernando Martinez (18-1, 9 KOs) in unifying WBA, WBO and WBC junior-bantamweight titles. The silkiness of the American-Mexican’s footwork and his accuracy of jab were the telling factors in this contest.
Rodriguez one of Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound top ten stakes a further claim to be their #1. A move up to full bantamweight (8st, 6lbs/118 lbs) is almost inevitable.
An all-American contest saw Brian Norman Jr. against Devin Haney for the former’s WBO welterweight (10st, 7lbs/147 lbs) title. This was eagerly anticipated given it pitched an undefeated power-puncher (Norman) against a former two-divisional ‘world’ champion who is widely skilled, but, known for his safety first approach. The ultimate irony was the elite Haney (now 33-0-1, 16 KO’s) out-bombed the bomber, dropping him in the second round and ultimately cruising to victory.
Norman dropped to 28-0-1 (22 KOs) whilst Haney moves onto bigger challenges.
Top of the bill, certainly in terms of weight and world significance, was the WBC light-heavyweight championship between American David Benavides and Britain’s Anthony Yarde. After a highly competitive fight the defending champion Benavides walked down and stopped the three-time ‘world’ title challenger Yarde on 1:59 of the seventh round.
The Brit was bothered for much of the later rounds by an increasingly bashed-up face as the Benavides power-punching took its toll. Yarde started well, working off a good jab, but in the end hit the wall as his muscular frame seemed to fatigue the quicker. The referee stopped the contest with Yarde backed onto the ropes for another time and under-siege from the Phoenix, Arizona, USA and elite WBC champion.
Benavides, already a two-divisional world champion, looks like he has the frame to step up to a third division (cruiserweight) at the very least.
However, after failing to secure a unification fight against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez last year here are still plenty more lucrative contests at light-heavy (12st, 7lbs/175 lbs) for him to earn big money. A possible opponent, Joshua Buatsi, was watching from ringside, who will do well to meet the American before the latter inevitably moves up.
Yarde (27-4, 24 KOs) had previously been stopped by Russian bangers Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev in firefights, and post-fight rated Benavides somewhere between the two. Former undisputed champion Beterbiev being the pick of the crop.
Benavides (31-0, 25 KOs), having already adorned the cover of Ring Magazine, is on the road to mega-fights ad potential superstardom. It seems only when, not if.
A great night of boxing with some champion performances.
The Undisputed 