By Carlo Borrelli
“There are no pacts between lions.” This was Achilles’ reply to Hector’s request for a truce in Homer’s Iliad. Likewise, Ben Whittaker – Olympic silver medallist at Tokyo 2020 and now a professional light-heavyweight with a 9-0-1 record – who surged into the spotlight for a title push after his win over Liam Cameron, is wary of Anthony Yarde’s hopes against the “young and ambitious” David Benavidez.
British fighters have always ignited arenas and stadiums around the boxing world, partly thanks to their colourful statements before major fights such as Saturday night’s clash at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Yarde will challenge WBC light-heavyweight champion Benavidez and, perhaps for the first time in his career, enters a world title fight with the maturity required to win.
Anthony Yarde holds a record of 27 wins (24 by KO) and 3 losses. The 34-year-old comes off world title attempts against Sergey Kovalev in 2019 and Artur Beterbiev in 2023. Although he was stopped on both occasions by the Russian power punchers, his performances boosted his reputation and confidence to launch a new assault on the WBC world title.
On the opposite side stands David Benavidez who, at 28, is the WBC light-heavyweight champion with a professional record of 30 wins and 0 losses (24 by KO). He was awarded the WBC title at the table in March 2025 when Dmitrii Bivol refused to face him. Benavidez also won the super-middleweight title twice between 2017 and 2020, becoming the youngest super-middleweight world champion in history.
Here is what Whittaker said when asked for a prediction:
“[Yarde’s a] massive underdog.
“He fought an [36-year] old Kovalev – fought great and lost. You don’t want to say Beterbiev was old – he was – 39, 40 [he was 38]; lost there.
“Where Benavidez is young and hungry, it’s a big ask for me but he’s a Brit – I’m not a jealous, envious person. I’d love him to do it for Britain; bring bigger fights here as well; another world champion for the UK.
“But for me it’s probably a bit too much. It goes from there to there [motions at different levels with his hands].
“He fought Oleksandr Gvozdyk; David Morrell. He’s just going up and up – the quality is on Benavidez.”
In short, according to Whittaker, Benavidez is still an opponent beyond Yarde’s reach. He describes the Briton as a huge underdog whose best performance came against an ageing, end-of-career Kovalev. Whittaker now fears Yarde may be outclassed due to the American champion’s youth and the level he has reached by facing fighters such as Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell. Regardless of predictions and outcome, a future clash between Yarde and the 28-year-old Whittaker remains possible given the competitiveness of the British light-heavyweight scene.