David Benavidez realizes that Anthony Yarde is one of the hardest punchers in the light heavyweight division.

He believes the brutish Brit will be even more dangerous than usual, though, because Yarde understands that this will likely be his final chance to become a 175-pound champion. Yarde, 34, lost his first two title fights to Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev, both by technical knockout after hurting the Russian champions.

“This is a fighter with his back against the wall,” Benavidez, who holds the WBC title, told The Ring. “This is a fighter that feels like this is his last opportunity. I know he’s a dangerous fighter and I know he’s putting everything into this training camp. But you know what? I train like that every fight. I know a defeat, it takes me down a lot. I’m not going through that. I’m working extremely hard to make sure that I never go through that.”

Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), ninth on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, hopes an impressive victory over Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) leads to an eventual shot at former undisputed light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol. The 28-year-old Phoenix native knows he’ll have to wait patiently once Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) resumes his career after having back surgery over the summer, but Benavidez is fully focused on defeating Yarde in the main event of “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” show Saturday night at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“For this camp, we probably had about 4½ months training,” Benavidez said. "I know what’s on the line for this fight. I know what’s on the table. And I know Anthony Yarde is coming in extremely prepared. That’s why I’m coming in extremely prepared, too. You’ve got two guys in there that know what’s on the line, know what’s at stake for this fight, because after this fight for me the sky’s the limit.

“We got a lotta big fights on the table. We got a fight with ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, we got a fight with Artur Beterbiev, we got a fight with Dmitry Bivol. This is my step into stardom. It starts with this fight. I’m moving accordingly, how I have to move to make sure that everything goes according to plan.”

DraftKings lists Benavidez as a 9-1 favorite versus Yarde, who has won four straight fights since Beterbiev beat him by eighth-round technical knockout in January 2023 in London. Their bout will headline DAZN’s four-fight pay-per-view show in the United States ($59.99) and the UK (£24.99).