{"id":136909,"date":"2025-05-27T21:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136909\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:23:07","slug":"smiths-summer-fight-yarde-or-benavidez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136909\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith’s Summer Fight: Yarde Or Benavidez?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Callum Smith is in negotiations with Anthony Yarde and David Benavidez for a fight in the summer. WBO interim light heavyweight champion Smith revealed that talks with WBC and WBA \u2018regular\u2019 champ Benavidez are further along.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s Summer Fight Options<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the fight doesn\u2019t get made, a clash against Yarde is a possibility for Callum. There\u2019s more for Smith (31-2, 22 KOs) to gain from fighting Benavidez, but it\u2019s a much tougher fight for him. If his promoter, Eddie Hearn, has any input on his decision, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if he chose the easier fight against Yarde rather than tangle with \u2018The Mexican Monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ring reports <\/a>that Smith is in negotiations with Yarde for a summer fight. This fight will likely get made, leaving Benavidez high and dry. He\u2019s bad news for either of these Brits.<\/p>\n

Smith is already in the catbird seat<\/strong>, holding the WBO interim 175-lb title. He can sit and wait for an eventual crack at the winner of the Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev trilogy match, which he will do. The chances are high that the winner of that fight would rather fight Callum than face Benavidez. Yarde is a soft pick for Smith in comparison to taking on Benavidez. He\u2019ll surely take Yarde over \u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 any day of the week.<\/p>\n

Smith has put himself in a position for a massive payday against the Bivol-Beterbiev 3 winner, and Hearn isn\u2019t going to want him to ruin that by letting him fight Benavidez. As good as Smith is, he\u2019d get chopped up by Benavidez and sent into retirement.<\/p>\n

Benavidez: Bivol\u2019s Kryptonite?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bivol isn\u2019t crazy. He knows that Benavidez is kryptonite for his defensive fighting style, and would chase him down and end his reign as the champion. Turki Alalshikh could set up as many rematches as he wants, but Bivol will never beat Benavidez. That\u2019s why he\u2019ll choose Callum Smith over him, and never fight him unless he\u2019s offered ridiculous money.<\/p>\n

Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) has won his last four fights since being knocked out in the eighth round by former IBF, WBC, and WBO light heavyweight champion Beterbiev in 2023.<\/p>\n

Callum is coming off a grueling 12-round unanimous decision win over Joshua Buatsi on February 22nd in Riyadh. That was a tough fight for Smith, 35, but he got through it with his power and constant pressure against the worn-down-looking Buatsi. Going from that fight straight into a war with Benavidez wouldn\u2019t be the smartest thing for Callum to do.<\/p>\n

Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Smith\u2019s Summer Fight: Yarde or Benavidez?<\/p>\n

Last Updated on 05\/27\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Callum Smith is in negotiations with Anthony Yarde and David Benavidez for a fight in the summer. WBO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[4334,1935,4335,4332,4331,4333,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-136909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-anb-arena","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-fight-niight","11":"tag-mark-robinson","12":"tag-matchroom-boxing","13":"tag-riyadh-season","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114581903993615604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}