Benavidez is nothing special in terms of skills

It might sound strange but I was a bit underwhelmed by Benavidez's performance vs Yarde. I usually find him more exciting to watch, not to say he wasn't vs Yarde, especially during those final two rounds, but I felt he lacked his usual intensity for most of the fight. Yes, Yarde's tactics played a big part in that but the Benavidez we saw in the back half of round 6 and round 7 is the one I'm used to seeing and he looked great when he put his foot down on the pedal and went to town on Yarde. So when others where saying how impressive he looked I was like, yeah, but he usually comes out in that gear from the start or shifts into it much earlier than he did.

Yarde was holding his own in the early going even if he wasn't banking rounds. Maybe Benavidez was mindful of his power and believed the hype about him hurting Beterbiev but Yarde was throwing pity pats for the most part

This is the Benevidez who I like best and who first caught my eye

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I think that Benavidez could've got Yarde out of there earlier just like a prime Kovalev who was actually throwing with full power would've got him out of there in a couple of rounds as opposed to it taking the past prime McGirt trained Kovalev who was much more of a boxer than a boxer puncher 11 rounds

 

No, I mean marginally better. I hate to break it to you, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that you're a delusional fanboy. Chris Billam-Smith actually has a comparable resume to Benavidez. The man has beaten genuine beasts at the weight like Okolie, Riakporhe and Glanton, all of whom would probably beat down and stop Benavidez. CBS was the underdog in two of those three matches. Benavidez hasn't been the underdog in years. Sure, on paper Benavidez has the shinier resume, but the Gvozdyk win which he faded down the stretch in and lost the last 5 rounds. Had Gvozdyk entered the match believing in himself, and started 2 rounds earlier we'd all be talking about the gift Benavidez received. The Morrell fight arguably was a gift, and that's a Morrell who was coming off of getting a gift against Hot Rod, and going on to get a gift against Khataev. Even if you disagree, it was way too close for comfort. Andrade and Lemieux were blown up Middleweights at the end of their careers. Plant was coming off of a vicious beating at the hands of Canelo and went on to have his **** pushed in by a Light Middleweight in Resendez. Yet David couldn't stop a sitting duck. Yarde might have put up more of a fight had he come in and aggressively tried to walk him down and overpower him, keeping him on the backfoot, but Yarde and his idiot trainer combined don't have the ring IQ of a mollusk. The Davis, Dirrell, Gavril, Angulo, and Ellis wins, get the **** out of here! They're bordering on meaningless. Whereas Chris Billam-Smith's wins over Chamberlain, Masternak, McCarthy and Xhoxhaj are comparable.

His power proved less than impressive at 168, it's all but disappeared at 175, and it will be non-existent at 200. The only thing he's had the advantage with is his volume and size, at Cruiserweight, he will not have anything resembling a size advantage, and if his power is even less effective, someone like yes... Chris Billam-Smith could wreck him. His skillset is not as impressive as you've convinced yourself it is. He certainly isn't a defensive whiz, Gvozdyk landed 163 punches on David, Morrell landed 165 punches on David, if someone like Opetaia lands that many, well... nevermind, if he lands half that, David will be unconscious. Get a grip!

 

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Makes sense but I don't feel like that was the case when he fought Gvozdyk and Morrell at 175. I feel the intensity was there from the get-go or much earlier. But maybe I'm remembering it wrong

 

A roided up currently banned for 5 years 3-0 fighter, who also dominated Kudryashov in his 2nd fight and Papin in his 5th, who'd beat the **** out of Benavidez as well. I take it you didn't see the David Light match, which Glanton won with ease. So that loss meant nothing as well.

For the record, it's called hubris.

For what it's worth, I can't stand Okolie or Riakporhe, I hate watching them both, but if you think they wouldn't tear Benavidez's face off, you clearly don't know **** about boxing.

 

Goddamn... you are that stupid.