Ahead of his return against David Benavidez at the end of the year, Anthony Yarde seems to be taking the unbeaten champion more than seriously.
A veteran light heavyweight contender, British star Yarde has come unstuck just thrice in his career.
And looking to finally break through in his clash with the undefeated Benavidez for light heavyweight gold fight in November, Yarde admitted he had no reservations about billing the former high in his mind.
Anthony Yarde compares David Benavidez to past foes Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev
Dropping title fight losses to both former undisputed champion, Beterbiev and Russian veteran, Kovalev, earlier in his career in knockout defeats, Yarde will look to finally crack his world championship duck later this year.
Issuing massive praise to Benavidez ahead of their pairing, Yarde claimed that when it comes to résumés for the light heavyweight division, the unbeaten star is approaching superstar status.
“At this moment in time, the people he’s (David Benavidez) has beaten, going up in weight, you know, he’s — he’s approaching all-time [great],” Yarde told Boxing News.
“What’s funny is, when I’m fighting these guys — when I fought (Sergey) Kovalev, the only people he lost to was Andre Ward, these guys are always on their ‘highs’.
“(Artur) Beterbiev; 18-0. 18 knockouts. …And Benavidez again, he’s on the pound-for-pound list. There’s speculation that people avoid him. I don’t care about all that.
And despite massive praise for Benavidez, Yarde has challenged the Phoenix native to a rather interesting stylistic approach to their clash.
Anthony Yarde invites David Benavidez to world championship “shootout”
An impressive knockout artist with 24 stoppages littered across his résumé, Yarde is in the midst of his own eye-catching run of late, landing four straight wins since his 2023 loss to Beterbiev.
And against Benavidez, he’s matching up with a similarly devastating finisher.
As a result, Yarde wants to put on a showdown for the fans, inviting Benavidez to slug it out with him in the center of the ring.
Let’s have a shootout,” Yarde said during an interview with The Ring. “Give me a shootout. I will stand in the middle, he’s going to stand in the middle, and we will have a shootout… give the fans what they want to see.”