ANTHONY YARDE suffered a scary stoppage loss to Mexican Monster David Benavidez – with his third world title challenge ending in heartache.
Yarde – who lost his two prior light-heavyweight championships bouts to Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev – hoped it would be third time lucky.
But American Benavidez – given his menacing nickname due to his Hispanic heritage – brutally ended the Brit’s dreams in round seven.
He said: “It’s definitely what I expected. When I got the contract, I said, ‘Oh, man, this is gonna be a war, this is what I dreamt about.’
“He cut me like in round six, I said: ‘You want a shootout, then?’ He stepped in the ‘Monster’’s world and got KOed.
“I grade B+, there’s always room for improvement, but people said I couldn’t stop this guy, and I made it look easier than Kovalev and Beterbiev.”
Yarde elected to go on the back foot in the opening round, looking to catch and counter, landing with a nice right hand.
But while Benavidez clearly gave away the strength, his speed was evident, catching Yarde with a blistering jab and right hand counter.
London’s Beast From the East did shoot into life in the second, finding home to the jab, left hook and short right hand.
And Benavidez surprisingly went southpaw in round three as he struggled to cope with Yarde’s quick counters.
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But soon it was the Arizona-born – who twice reigned at super-middleweight – who showed off his trademark hand speed with the challenger trapped in the corner.
A chopping right hand bounced off Yarde’s chin just before the bell sounded to end the third – the first sign of trouble.
Benavidez, 28, began to walk Yarde, 34, into danger zones on the ropes before letting punches go in bunches in.
The fourth round ended with Yarde holding onto Benavidez with his left hand, while his right was corked by his chin as the champion relentlessly hammered away.
Yarde – already marked up under the right eye – beat his chest after Benavidez fired in a flurry of right hands in the fifth.
At the halfway stage of the scheduled 12, Yarde backed Benavidez onto the ropes and chopped away up top.
A couple of right hands grazed Benavidez’s chin – sparking huge encouragement from the challenger’s corner.
But they soon pleaded with their man to hold on after he was left in all sorts of troubles in the neutral corner as Benavidez poured on the pressure.
Benavidez managed to turn a round in which he was hurt and on the back foot – to the beginning of the end.
A left hook left Yarde’s nose busted up and pouring with blood as the seventh got off to a disastrous start for the Londoner.
Before long, a barrage of hooks in the corner sunk Yarde to the canvas but Benavidez found himself docked TWO points for punching his downed opponent.
Although it mattered little as two monstrous left hands caught Yarde cold on the ropes – leaving referee Hector Afu no choice but to step in.
Benavidez retained his WBC title and revealed he is moving up to cruiserweight to challenge Mexico’s WBA champ Gilberto Zurdo Ramirez.
He said: “I’ve got some news for you guys, May 2nd me versus Zurdo Ramirez, I’m going up to cruiserweight to challenge for his title.”
