By Dan Ambrose: WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez plans on taking care of his mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim after he makes voluntary title defense against #15 WBC Roamer Angulo on August 15.
Benavidez (22-0, 19 KOs) will be defending against 36-year-old Colombian Roamer (26-1, 22 KOs) in a stay busy fight next month at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT. The match will be broadcast on SHOWTIME.
“His mandatory [Yildirim],” said Benavidez’s promoter Sampson Lewkowicz to ESPN.com when asked who he’ll be facing after he takes carer of Angulo in August.
Avni ‘Mr. Robot’ Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) is coming off of a 10th round technical decision loss to Anthony Dirrell last year in February 2019. The fight was stopped after ten rounds due to the 34-year-old Dirrell suffering a bad cut. The cut had opened up in the seventh round after Dirrell and Avni had clashed heads.
Benavidez will be heavily favored to beat Yildirim
In the subsequent rounds of the fight, Dirrell faded severely and was taking punishment from Yildirim in the championship rounds. It’s believed that had the fight went the distance; the 28-year-old Yildirim would have won the match. The scores were 96-94, 96-94 for Dirrell, and 98-92 for Avni.
Benavidez, 23, last saw action last year in September when he defeated Dirrell by a ninth-round knockout in Los Angeles. Dirrell’s corner halted the fight during the round because he was bleeding from a cut over his right eye, and he was taking a lot of punishment.
Yildirim isn’t much of an upgrade for Benavidez from the Dirrell bout, as he’s already been exposed by Chris Eubank Jr in losing a third-round knockout in October 2017 in the World Boxing Super Series tourney.
Yildirim bounced back from that defeat by winning five consecutive contests against lower-level opposition. Unfortunately, when Yildirim stepped it up against Dirrell, he was getting dominated until Anthony suffered a cut. That turned things around and allowed Yildirim to get back into it.
The chances of Yildirim beating a talented fighter like Benavidez are slim to the point where his likely only chances are if David is injured. Yildirim’s hand speed is glacially slow, but he does have heavy hands and a good chin.
In Yildirim’s loss to Eubank Jr, he was buried by the combination punching from the British fighter. Eubank Jr was throwing tons of shots, and Yildirim was slow with his response time to firing punches back.
Yildirim looked like he was fighting in slow motion in comparison to Eubank Jr. The fight was painful to watch due to the one-sided nature of the contest.