David Benavidez may not have been as "bullish" on his main event performance early on Sunday morning in Saudi Arabia as others watching, but he still won convincingly by 7th round TKO over Anthony Yarde to retain his WBC light heavyweight crown.

 The fight capped the "The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” DAZN pay-per-view card, in which the main event began around 5 a.m. local time to align with prime-time viewing hours in North America.

Yarde has long been known as a dangerous contender at light heavyweight, pushing elite champions such as Sergey Kovalev in 2019 and Artur Beterbiev in 2023 to the brink before eventually being stopped. In both of those title challenges, But whatever Yarde produced in those bouts, he could compete against Benavidez, in this one. Benavidez came out aggressive and pressed Yarde from the opening bell. He controlled the pace, the distance, and the exchanges, steadily wearing Yarde down before finishing him with a brutal knockout in the seventh round and a barrage of punches along the ropes that followed.

The victory marked Benavidez’s first defense of the WBC and WBA “regular” light heavyweight titles and basically, announced him as the premier challenger to unified 175 lb. title holder Dmitry Bivol.

“I’m not gonna lie, I think I could have done some stuff better, but there’s always room for improvement,” Benavidez said to DAZN afterward, grading his performance "a B+." He coninued, "people said I couldn’t stop this guy, that I had no power at 175, and I made it look easier than Kovalev and Beterbiev.”

After dispatching Yarde, the Mexican-American star wasted no time plotting his next move. Benavidez announced his intention to jump to cruiserweight to face fellow Mexican and current WBO/WBA titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on May 2, aligning the matchup with the Cinco de Mayo weekend boxing tradition. Still, before he could look ahead to that challenge, he needed to prove he could neutralize Yarde’s power — something he did convincingly.

In the co-feature former undisputed lightweight world champ Devin Haney won his third world title in a different division, as he dropped champ Brian Norman in the second round and then, controlled the action the rest of the way for a unanimous decision win over WBO champ, Brian Norman.

The knockdown set the tone in the second round as Haney buckled briefly from a left to the side of the head and then Haney caught him with a hard right dropping the champ to his knees. Norman got up stunned and Haney hurt him again with a left before Norman tied him up. Eventually, the champion survived the round, but didn't seem like the same fighter for several rounds after that.

Haney built the lead on the cards winning by scores of 117-110, 116-111 and comically, 114-113, which would have been a draw without the knockdown.

Haney was beaten in the ring by Ryan Garcia on a decision in in April 2024, getting knocked down three times himself. The verdict was overturned to a "no-contest" by the New York Commission due to Garcia testing positive for a PED. He had fought once since, beating Jose Ramirez in a dull 12 round decision back in May.

“In 2024, I lost everything. Everything came crashing on me,” Haney said. “In 2025, I came to get it back and in 2026 I’m coming for everything.”

Norman was making his fourth defense, but clearly had not been in with a world class fighter like Haney, and it showed.

Also, early Sunday, Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez added the WBA junior bantamweight title to his already WBC/WBO titles, as he dismantled Fernando "Puma" Martinez and eventually dropped and kayoed him in the 9th round. In winning his ninth straight world title bout, Rodriguez battered Martinez with hard lefts and also, a steady diet of body shots. Martinez's face was swelling in the middle of the fight, as he fell hopelessly behind losing round after round. Eventually, Rodriguez landed another booming left to the chin and Martinez didn't try to get up.

Bam is a also a former unified world champ at flyweight and is clearly one of the top four or five fighters in the sport, regardless of weight class.