The highly anticipated Ring IV card takes place on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The card will feature four world championship fights, each intriguing in its own way. On a card billed as Night of Champions, seven of the eight combatants in the four championship fights have no losses on their record.
The main event will feature David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KO) defending his WBA light heavyweight championship against two-time title challenger Anthony Yarde (27-3, 24 KO). Benavidez spent the majority of his career in the super middleweight division, where he beat every opponent put in front of him. Benavidez was a two-time champion at 168 pounds, with a positive cocaine test being the only bump in the road through the super middleweight division.
Following his victory over Demetrius Andrade in November 2023, and tired of waiting for Canelo Alvarez to agree to step in the ring with him, Benavidez opted to move up to the light heavyweight division and test himself at the 175-pound limit. With wins over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and David Morrell, Benavidez earned the WBA light heavyweight championship. For his third fight at 175 pounds, Benavidez gets a chance to headline a huge event and face a legitimate, battle-tested light heavyweight yearning for championship gold.
For Anthony Yarde, this bout figures to be his last chance at a world championship. The 34-year-old Brit lost his two previous attempts at capturing a world championship, falling via knockout against Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev. He hopes to have gained experience from his past title tribulations and prevail in the championship rounds.
On Tuesday, Benavidez indicated that he still believes a fight with Canelo Alvarez will happen down the line. “Canelo knows that I’m not playing games with him. I’m not playing games with anybody. If anything, he knows this fight between me and him is inevitable, and when it happens, it’s going to be like an Oscar De La Hoya vs Chavez.”
Despite this being only Benavidez’s third fight at light heavyweight, he seems to have something bigger in mind with a different Mexican superstar should he prevail on Saturday. Benavidez’s father and trainer, David Benavidez Sr., has said that initial discussions have taken place about his son moving up to cruiserweight and challenging unified champion Gilberto Ramirez on Cinco de Mayo weekend in a Mexican superfight. That would be a great fight and spectacle. Anthony Yarde would love nothing more than to prevent it from happening by upsetting Benavidez.
⋯
Devin Haney (32-0, 15 KO, 1 NC) will be challenging WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. (28-0, 22 KO, 2 NC) in an intriguing clash. Norman is young, athletic, and powerful, but Devin Haney will be the most accomplished fighter Norman has faced thus far. Facing Norman will be Haney’s first fight at 147 pounds following championship-winning stints in the junior lightweight and lightweight divisions. Despite all of his accomplishments, legitimate questions exist about where Devin Haney’s ability and mindset are right now.
The turning point of Haney’s career came in his controversial April 2024 fight against longtime amateur rival Ryan Garcia; Haney suffered three knockdowns in a thorough defeat to Garcia.
The fight was eventually ruled a no-contest following Garcia’s testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. While Haney preserved his undefeated record, the feeling of how that fight played out remained.
Haney has fought just once since, in May against Jose Ramirez in Times Square on the Ring II card. Though he won comfortably on all three scorecards, Haney was underwhelming; in twelve rounds, he landed 70 of a paltry 224 punches thrown (throwing one punch every 9.6 seconds on average).
In July, during the introductory press conference for this card in Times Square, it seemed like Haney was trying to convince himself that he was the same man who beat all comers at his two previous weight classes. Coming off two underwhelming performances, will Haney be back at his best in a new weight class against a young, talented champion?
Brian Norman Jr., the Decatur, Georgia native, will turn 25 years old the day after defending the WBO welterweight championship against Haney. Norman has shown impressive punching power in claiming the welterweight championship, particularly in his last fight, a 5th-round demolition of Jin Sasaki in Japan. Haney recognizes Norman possesses punching power, but Haney believes there are levels to the fight game, and he will show Norman that he is not on his level. With the skill level of these two fighters and the multiple ways this fight could play out, this should be the fight of the night and could truly go either way.
⋯
England’s Sam Noakes (17-0, 15 KO) and Cleveland’s Abdullah Mason (19-0, 17 KO) will face off for the vacant WBO lightweight championship. Mason is just 21 years old, but the top prospect comes in looking to hand Noakes his first defeat and win the vacant world lightweight championship. Mason hopes to join Shawn Porter and Mickey Bey as northeast Ohio’s third world champion of the last eleven years.
For Noakes, this will be the first time he has been an underdog in his career. He does not seem to mind the distinction. “If you’re made the underdog, that’s only based on what someone else is thinking, isn’t it? I’ll let them think what they want and then I’ll change their opinion come November 22nd, don’t worry about that.”
Mason signed with Top Rank when he turned pro four years ago. He is incredibly talented and already very PR savvy, a significant 1-2 combination in attaining boxing stardom. Another way to achieve stardom is to face an opponent earmarked as the next big thing and beat him, which Noakes hopes to accomplish. Whoever emerges victorious in this bout between young, undefeated hard punchers will have truly earned their first-ever world championship.
⋯
While his fight is billed fourth on this loaded event, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KO) could be the best boxer on this card. Rodriguez will face fellow undefeated titlist Fernando “Puma” Martinez (18-0, 9 KO) in a battle for super flyweight supremacy. Rodriguez holds the WBC and WBO super flyweight championships, with Martinez holding the WBA championship at 115 pounds.
Most observers believe Rodriguez is a top-six pound-for-pound boxer. But Martinez is a worthy challenger for Bam. Martinez showed resiliency in his last fight, surviving a knockdown to retain his WBA junior bantamweight championship against Kazuto Ioka. Martinez has been in the ring with opponents who expected to use him as a stepping stone before. Jerwin Ancajas and Ioka were both favored to defeat Martinez before he beat each man, with Martinez winning rematches with both just for good measure.
But Rodriguez might be a different animal for Puma. At 25 years old, Rodriguez has already defeated great fighters, including Juan Francisco Estrada, Carlos Cuadras, Sunny Edwards, and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Rodriguez lands 39% of his punches according to CompuBox, the highest connect percentage of any active fighter.
If Rodriguez wins, he plans to target the IBF belt holder in his next fight before moving up to a higher weight class. “I will have two more fights at junior bantamweight maximum, and then move up. So this one, and then one more, to become undisputed.” Willibaldo Garcia and Kenshiro Teraji will face off for the IBF championship on December 27th at the next Ring Magazine-promoted event, Ring V: Night of the Samurai. The winner of that matchup figures to face off against Bam Rodriguez in 2026 in a contest for all of the championships at junior bantamweight. Fernando Martinez hopes to upset the apple cart once again, this time putting himself one win away from undisputed status at 115 pounds.
⋯
Ring IV: Night of Champions on Saturday will feature four world championship fights with implications extending across weight classes throughout boxing. The card will feature young fighters attempting to win their first championship: Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes. Two of the sport’s top champions, David Benavidez and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, look to put on great performances before moving up for a bigger challenge. Two competitors opposing those top champions intend to pull off upsets and earn career-defining victories: Fernando Martinez and Anthony Yarde. Devin Haney seeks a world championship in a third weight class and to silence the whispers that he is no longer among boxing’s elite. Brian Norman Jr. stands in his way, looking to defend his championship and boldly announce his arrival as one of boxing’s best.
However Ring IV plays out, on Saturday night, boxing fans should be the ones who feel like champions.