David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde | RING IV: Night of Champions - Full Card Highlights and Thoughts š„
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RING IV is easily Riyadh Seasonās best American card so far. They always promote their cards as the greatest cards of all time, but this one definitely had the names to claim that title. And best of all I felt like the main event between David Benavidez and Anthony Yarde delivered.
I was obviously rooting for the American, Benavidez, to win this fight against a solid Anthony Yarde in the light heavyweight division. Yarde isnāt a punk by any means and is a dangerous puncher but I felt the Mexican Monsterās style with the quick hands and combinations would help him overcome Yarde in the later rounds.
I figured Yarde would gas out later in the fight trying to keep up with Benavidezās workrate due to Yardeās muscular build, but the Mexican Monster put on what I thought was the performance of the night and got Yarde out of there a little sooner than I expected.
Bam Rodriguez vs Fernando Martinez;
Iāll never get tired of watching Bam dominate his opponents. Heās always so sharp and technically sound in the ring! Heās looks like a ai bot executing everything to perfection. There are no flaws in his game, dude is just a perfect fighter.
He dominated a champ in Fernando Martinez and punctuated it with really nice knockout. The best knockout of the night in my opinion, even though Iām a little biased with Bam being one of my favorite fighters.
Abdullah Mason vs Sam Noakes;
I felt like Abdullah Mason, another fighter that like, got the fight that he needed. Heās super young and talented but needed to be in the ring with a fighter that would challenge him, and Sam Noakes gave him just that. Although Abdullah Mason looked good overall and got the win, Noakes made the young kid have to grow up in there.
Mason looked sharp and offensively sound but I need to see more defense from my guy. Noakes was tough and kept coming at Mason through everything Mason had for him. Respect to Noakes to for never submitting to the beating, continuing to exchange with Mason, and making the young champ dog it out for the the win.
Brian Norman Jr. vs Devin Haney;
And the fight that I was most excited for going into the card, and the one that delivered the biggest shock to a lot of people, Deebo Dev vs that down South Georgia boy!
Going into the fight people were saying Haney was gonna get brutally knocked out. The former undisputed champ has been disrespected for the past couple of years by fight fans and casuals. They called him pillow fisted, they said he doesnāt do anything but run all fight, they said heās soft and that Ryan Garcia ruined himā¦ But Devin got in there and proved everybody wrong!
Devin Haney stood right in front of a heavy handed Brian Norman Jr exchanged with him all fight and out boxed him. A Brian Norman Jr. whoās last opponent lost 6 weeks of memory after being knocked out by a Norman Jr. left hook, the same punch they said Ryan Garcia ruined Haney with. Haney shocked everyone with the 2nd round knockdown of Norman Jr. following a clean left hook overhand right combo that really hurt Norman Jr. and had him hesitant to go at Haney through the early parts of the fight. From there Haney put on a boxing clinic, controlling the distance, wrapping Norman Jr up on the inside, taking away everything Norman Jr wanted to do in the ring, and out boxing him.
Haney looked good landing what I call āthe undisputed jabā whenever he wanted to and came away with a super respectable win. Gotta respect how Haney went in there against one of the baddest men in the division and took the belt from the super hard hitting Brian Norman Jr.
Overall, I thought Ring IV delivered a solid night of boxing. Shoutout to Turki Alalshikh for putting a good US card together. Hopefully we continue to get good cards from Riyadh Season in the future showcasing American fighters.
Itās looking like David Benavidez will be moving to cruiserweight and continuing to give fans the best fights he can. I like how heās moving now forgetting about the Canelo fight and forming his own path to greatness.
Itās gonna be interesting to see what Devin Haney does next. He keeps proving that heās willing to get there with anyone and give it everything heās got to get the win even while being disrespected by the fans. Iād love to see Devin Haney go up against the winner of Teofimo Lopez vs Shakur Stevenson, but boxing has a way of getting in the way of these things sometimes.
Abdullah Mason is young and super talented but just needs to continue growing as a fighter. This was the step up he needed. I just want to see him continue on this path, work on his defense, and collect those belts.
If you didnāt already have Bam Rodriguez in your top pound for pound fighter list, he has to be there now! He just continuing to prove himself to be flawless fighter with each performance. Some fans are calling for a fight between Bam and Nagoya Inoue, which I donāt personally donāt think makes sense due to the difference in weight classes, but I said the same thing about Canelo vs Crawford and look how that turned out. But need that Bam vs Nakatani fight. Thatās the fight that takes Bam from top P4P fighter to thinking about putting him on the all time great list.
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