Dream fight, Jai Opetaia vs. David Benavidez, who would take the win if they fought now?

He was actually 39 for the rematch albeit close to 40. Yes, that was an old well past prime Breidis but he still had his mechanism, power, his iron chin, and he was punching with mean intentions and I'd pick that version of Briedis to beat Zurdo and every other CW in the world outside of Jai. Gvozdyk was a mentally broken fighter whose heart was clearly no longer fully in the game who was throwing punches with kind intentions compared to the power puncher of old and he only turned up for a payday vs Benavidez

Er. Yarde was throwing pity pats from the outset and so was Gvozdyk.

Yarde went life and death vs Lyndon Arthur in his previous fight and in his fight prior to that one he arguably lost or drew vs a nobody who was boxing his ears off for large spells. Prime Yarde was a bum according to you when he was a scalp on Beterbiev's CV. So was a prime Lemieux at his natural and best weight when he was one on GGG's CV. Remember how Morrell was completely unproven and hadn't beaten anyone? What changed?

Morrell went life and death vs Hot Rod and arguably lost to or drew with him and he was dropped and lost in most fan's eyes to a 10 fight novice in his subsequent fight after losing to Benavidez

Maybe they went into their shells because the were well or past prime and were mentally broken and damaged goods

Benavidez is one of my favourite fighters but he was a massive weight bully at 168 and was beating up on smaller or much naturally smaller fighters for the most part. Boo Boo and Lemieux had no right being in the ring with a gigantic 168 who is massive for 175. Plant is trash. He's, at best, fighting opponents his own size at 175 and let's see how he fares up at CW before we pick him to beat the #1 fighter at the weight

I don't think it's some foregone conclusion Jai beats him I think he's a brilliant fighter and is massive for the weight with a 6'2'' frame and a 74.5'' reach who comes in as high as 196 at 175 so it's not like he's some small LHW moving up 25lbs who will be tiny for the division. If he beats Jai fair and square, and the fight needs to be in Saudi not the US, his stock goes through the roof. But Jai is a highly skilled power punching CW who is bigger than Benavidez and he should be the favourite.

Benavidez has been dropped or dropped and hurt by Gavril and Morrell, Jai has eaten the bombs of the huge punching Breidis for 24 rounds and whilst his jaw was literally hanging off in their first fight and he's a KO machine himself

 

Vs Morrell

 

Afraid not. Yarde did say in his post-fight interview that Benavidez weighed a bit more than him on the scales but he might have been talking about the official weigh in