Turki Alalshikh is continuing his tradition of bringing the biggest and best boxing cards to the masses with another stacked event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this November featuring several major title fights.
Headlining the event will be David Benavidez defending his WBC light heavyweight title against Anthony Yarde. Benavidez is undefeated at 30-0 with 24 knockouts and currently holds the WBC interim light heavyweight title and the WBA regular light heavyweight title.
Benavidez has been lobbying for a fight against Canelo Alvarez, though that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, if ever. He was also looking forward to a fight against Dmitry Bivol, but that went up in smoke with talks of a third fight against Artur Beterbiev. Callum Smith, the interim WBO light heavyweight champion, was in line to get the Benavidez fight, which is why fans are confused Yarde got the nod, instead.
Yarde is currently on a four-fight win streak and has a record of 27-3, with his last loss coming against the aforementioned Artur Beterbiev. Yarde has won 24 of his fights by way of knockout.
In the co-main event of the evening, Devin Haney will face current WBO welterweight champion, Brian Norman Jr. Haney is coming off a one-sided win over Jose Ramirez this past May. He was in talks to face Teofimo Lopez but negotiations stalled and the Haney camp looked elsewhere. Norman Jr. is undefeated at 28-0 with 22 knockouts.
Also, up-and-coming star Abdullah Mason will take on Sam Noakes for the vacant WBO lightweight title that was left behind by Keyshawn Davis after he was stripped of the belt earlier this year for failing to make weight for his fight against Edwin de los Santos, which was ultimately cancelled.
If that weren’t enough, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez will defend his Ring Magazine junior bantamweight strap against Fernando Martinez.
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