As David Benavidez prepares for his next outing against Anthony Yarde, he answers some questions from Fight Hype during a training session on what he makes of his opponent’s training philosophy, who he rates as the top pound for pound fighter in the world at the moment, and more. Check out some of what he had to say below.
Benavidez on Yarde’s method of doing very little sparring in preparation for his fights
“I mean, to each their own. I don’t really care how other people work…I haven’t heard of people that don’t spar but if he’s not sparring for this fight it’s going to be a big mistake
for him. I’m unlike any other fighter so a lot of stuff I can do. I put a lot of pressure, I throw a lot of combinations, I’m fast. So if he’s not sparring nobody it’s going to be hard for him to catch my speed or catch my timing.”
On how he rates the top three P4P fighters between Usyk, Inoue and Crawford
“I think Usyk #1 without a doubt. I don’t think nobody even comes close to Usyk because of the amount of big fights he’s taken back to back to back to back. Even when he was in cruiserweight he was fighting the best fighters and then he went to the heavyweight division and nobody gave him much of a chance and he took everybody out. Usyk first, Terence Crawford #2 because he did something I didn’t think he was going to do, he went and beat Canelo, that’s three weight classes going up and he made it look pretty easy. So you have to give it to Crawford, and then Inoue. Inoue needs that big signature win.”
