Riyadh Grand

Riyadh Season once again served up a treat on Saturday night with four back-to-back world title shootouts.

From a Queensberry perspective, it didn’t go our way, but I left the ANB Arena to fly home feeling proud, particularly of young Sam Noakes.

Unfortunately, despite my best laid plans, I didn’t make it back in time to personally witness Arsenal thumping the neighbours because I failed to properly factor in the North London traffic!

Still, the result cheered me up no end.

I do feel nothing but pride and admiration for the performance of Sam in his first world lightweight title shot and, believe me, it won’t be his last.

Sam won’t make any excuses because it is just not in his nature, but the cut he sustained early on through a clash of heads put him instantly at a massive disadvantage.

There is no doubt that it hampered him. There is not just all the blood gushing, but also the swelling he had to contend with. When you get a nasty cut like that it instantly hands a bit initiative to your opponent, which is far from ideal when you are up against a sharp-shooter like Abdullah Mason.

Credit to Mason, he is clearly a top fighter with a massive future in front of him, but it wouldn’t have required a huge swing for Sam to have come out on top.

Having to deal with the cut made it into a gutsy performance from Sam, rather than the typically robust, controlling displays he is known for.

What he has done, even in defeat, is put himself on the map and the world now knows who he is and will happily watch him in action again.

It won’t be a long journey for Sam to put himself back in the world title picture.

It didn’t turn out to be third time lucky for Anthony Yarde, who eventually succumbed to David Benevidez.

Anthony has had a tough trot when it has come to his world title challenges, what with Sergey Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev and now Benevidez, but that is the deal at the highest level.

Yes, Benevidez is a top operator, but I don’t feel that Anthony really imposed himself on the fight in the way he can and tended to give up the middle ground a little too easily.

I suspect he will harbour one or two regrets when he watches it back because he is better than that.

You’ve got to give Benevidez credit though because, not only is he fast-handed and high volume, he is also accurate. This is a pretty lethal combination, but I don’t believe him to be some sort of unbeatable force.

It sounds like Benevidez is off to try his luck at cruiserweight now, so we will see if this creates openings for the other contenders at 175lbs. And we’ve got a few of them!