David Benavidez is a man on a mission to prove he's the world's best light heavyweight and his path to proving that means he must go through a longtime contender next.

Benavidez will look to make the first defense of his WBC light heavyweight title against Anthony Yarde in the main event of “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” this Saturday on DAZN PPV at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The card features four title fights on the PPV portion of the card: Brian Norman Jr. vs Devin Haney for Norman’s WBO welterweight title, a unification bout between Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Fernando “Puma” Martinez for The Ring/WBA/WBC/WBO 115-pound titles and Abdullah Mason vs Sam Noakes for the vacant WBO lightweight title.

In his last outing, Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) won a one-sided unanimous decision over David Morrell to retain the WBC interim light heavyweight title.

He was later elevated to full titlist after The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol vacated the WBC title to pursue a third bout against Artur Beterbiev rather than face Benavidez, who was ordered as the mandatory challenger by the WBC.

Yarde (27-3, 24 KOs) represents Benavidez’s third fight at 175-pounds. Before moving up, Benavidez, The Ring’s No. 2-ranked light heavyweight, was a two-time world champion at super middleweight. Yarde sits two places below him at No. 4 by The Ring.

Last fight: David Benavidez defeated David Morrell by unanimous decision on Feb. 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Odds: Benavidez is the second-biggest favorite among the four title fights at -900 odds, according to DraftKings.

How does Benavidez win? It’s no secret what Benavidez wants to do. He wants to press forward, push the pace and break his opponents down en route to stopping them late or winning by decision. He shouldn’t deviate much, if at all, from that formula against Yarde.

We've seen Yarde fade in his previous bids at a world title against Sergey Kovalev and Beterbiev, though, they had to walk through hell before the Brit’s spirited effort fell short in stoppage defeats. Yarde was up on two of the three judges’ scorecards against Beterbiev before getting stopped in the eighth round in January 2023, and nearly stopped Kovalev with a 9th-round flurry before the Russian stopped him two rounds later in August 2019.

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Yarde is by far the strongest fighter Benavidez has faced, so he’d be wise to take his time and not be overaggressive, especially in the early rounds. Benavidez needs to cautiously press forward and establish the jab early against Yarde, who prefers to potshot and counter from the outside. The jab, followed by a straight or looping right hand, could also be a good weapon for Benavidez and expose the 34-year-old's habit of pulling straight back.

From there, Benavidez could likely find it easier to close the gap and get on the inside, where he can rip the body and further slow Yarde down. If Benavidez can land a few good body shots a round, that’ll go a long way toward helping him land a stoppage victory.

Yarde has a knack for being at his best when he’s the underdog. Not only is Yarde a significant underdog entering Saturday, but at 34, the time is ticking if he’s ever going to win a world title, which may see Benavidez get the contender's best performance yet.

With those stakes, Benavidez will have to be at his best to successfully defend his title for the first time and move on to bigger fights at 175-pounds or even beyond in the near future.

What does it mean if Benavidez wins? How Benavidez wins will say a lot about him and his chances against unified beltholder Bivol and former undisputed titlist Beterbiev.

If Benavidez wins a one-sided decision over Yarde, it’s still a good win, but could further show that he’s not exactly the monster he was at super middleweight and would likely still be the underdog against Bivol or Beterbiev. The other side of that coin is that it could be proof he's adapting his game to the higher weight class and has added more layers besides his vaunted power.

But if Benavidez produces a dominant performance, or maybe stops Yarde in devastating fashion, that could show he has successfully grown into the weight and has a better chance against the divisional standard in Bivol and Beterbiev - who aren't getting any younger.

What they’re saying: “This is a fighter with his back against the wall, that feels like this is his last opportunity. I know he’s a dangerous fighter, and he's putting everything into this training camp. But you know what? I train like that every fight. I know a defeat takes me down a lot. I’m not going through that. I’m working extremely hard to make sure that I never go through that," Benavidez said when previewing this matchup and his motivation.

TV/Stream: The Ring IV: Night of the Champions takes place on Saturday, November 22 and will stream live on DAZN PPV from 3 p.m. ET/8 p.m. GMT.