David Benavidez vs. Kyrone Davis – final weights for Saturday

Former two-time WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez weighed in at 169 lbs and his opponent Kyrone Davis at 167.75 lbs for their fight this Saturday night.

(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)

Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs) had a pound to spare from the normal 168-lb limit for the weight class due to this fight being a non-title contest.

Benavidez and his replacement opponent Davis (16-2-1, 6 KOs) will be meeting a 10 round bout on SHOWTIME at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

The 24-year-old #1 WBC ranked Benavidez needs an impressive win to keep the pressure on WBC super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez to consider him as an option for his next fight.

It’s not so much Canelo making the decision to fight Benavidez based on a statement win, but rather the pressure coming from the boxing public for him to make the fight.

Ultimately, it’s likely that Canelo will choose to go in another direction rather than taking the risky fight with Benavidez next.

But for Benavidez’s sake, he needs a big knockout victory to ensure that the World Boxing Council orders the fight with Canelo sooner rather than later.

Benavidez said this week that if he has to go through Anthony Dirrell and Jermall Charlo to earn a fight with Canelo that he’s willing to do so. Benavidez already knocked out Dirrell in the ninth round in September 2019, and he’s been trying to get a fight with Jermall but with no luck.

This is Benavidez’s second fight since losing his WBC 168-lb title on the scales last year in August for his title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo.

Benavidez said that being in the bubble made it difficult for him to take the weight off during the week of the fight, which made it impossible to time off the remaining pounds.

In his last fight, Benavidez stopped Ronald Ellis in the 11th round last March.

That match was a real war from start to finish, but Benavidez wore Ellis was down eventually and took him out with a flurry of shots in the 11th. Ellis is arguably a much better fighter than Kyrone Davis, but that’s expected he wasn’t a replacement.

On the undercard, welterweight Jose Benavidez (27-1, 18 KOs0 weighed in at 158 3/4 lbs for his 10 round bout against junior middleweight Francisco Emanuel Torres (17-3, 5 KOs). Torres weighed in at 157 lbs.

Full weights for the card:

Super Middleweight Main Event Bout – 10 Rounds

David Benavídez* – 169 lbs.

Kyrone Davis – 167 ¾ lbs.

*Plus one-pound allowance for a non-title bout

Referee: Wes Melton; Judges: Dennis O’Connell (Ariz.), Rubin “Rocky” Taylor (Ariz.), Chris Wilson (Ariz.)

Super Welterweight Bout – 10 Rounds

Jose Benavídez, Jr.* – 158 ¾ lbs.

Emanuel Torres* – 157 ½ lbs.

*Contracted maximum weight is 159 lbs.

Referee: Chris Flores; Judges: Dennis O’Connell (Ariz.), Rubin “Rocky” Taylor (Ariz.), Chris Wilson (Ariz.)