David Benavidezvs Anthony Yarde

Benevidez even jumped up to light heavyweight to capture the big fights because Canelo held all the hardware at super middle.

The Monster Bandera Roja became world champion at 168lbs in early 2018 when he overcame Ronald Gavril at Mandalay Bay, going on to successfully defend the WBC belt against Anthony Dirrell.

He ran into weight issues in his next defence against Roamer Alexis Angula and, despite winning the fight, the title was only on the line for Angula.

However, he was back in WBC business with the Interim world title when he took on David Lemieux in May 2022, stopping the Canadian in three. He defended his Interim honour against Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrade and Oleksandr Gvoddyk, but there was no place to go unless Canelo consented to fight him, so it was off to light heavy and a straight WBA title shot - along with WBC Interim - against David Morrell.

The slick and feared Cuban was ultimately no match for the robust, high volume Benevidez and a comfortable decision victory followed.

Bivol relinquished his title on April 7 and Benevidez was upgraded to full WBC world champion, a belt he will now defend against Yarde.

Known as The Beast from the East (of London), Anthony Yarde has captured the imagination of the fight public since the early days of his professional career, which began back in 2015.

Explosive and highly entertaining, knockouts were the currency Yarde has traded in since Mitch Mitchell provided the opposition for his debut at Wembley Arena. Six of his first 10 fights ended in the first round and three in just the second.

Yarde quickly transported himself into title contention ultimately into a world level operator, who has always appeared destined to become a world champion.

Just seven fights after winning the Southern Area title in his 11th, Yarde was off to Russia to take on the formidable champion Sergey Kovalev. He was a matter of seconds away from stopping Kovalev in round eight before the timely intervention of the bell saved the home fighter.

Ultimately, Yarde ran out of steam and was stopped in the 11th, but gave a good account of himself and showed he would remain a force in the division.

Yarde won widespread admiration with a stirring challenge against the unified and unbeaten world light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev at the end of January 2023. Yarde traded blow for blow with the fearsome knockout artist and was very much on an equal footing until Beterbiev landed a telling blow in the eighth round and Yarde's corner decided they had seen enough and their man had little more to give.

His stock, however, remained on the up and becoming a world champion is still a very real prospect.

Yarde’s most recent fight against Lyndon Arthur, which completed a trilogy sequence between the pair, saw him unusually get up close to his opponent and win the hard way via unanimous decision.