David Benavidez and Mario Barrios are now world champions.
On the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Shawn Porter pay-per-view card, both Benavidez and Barrios battled to win the WBC super middleweight and WBA "Regular" junior welterweight titles, respectively.
In the first of three title fights of the night, Barrios managed to score a come-from-behind victory over Batyr Akhmedov and win the WBA's secondary 140-pound title. Thanks to a knockdown in the fourth and 12th round for Barrios, he would go on to win the title bout by unanimous decision with scores of 114-112, 115-111 and 116-111.
Barrios started fighting off well, using his length to keep Akhmedov from fighting on the inside and kept his left hand high up to prevent his opponent from connecting on combinations easily. After getting dropped in the fourth round, Akhmedov was able to close the distance and seriously hurt Barrios with body punches throughout the remainder of the fight. Barrios connected on a right hand to knock Akhmedov in the final round to save himself on the scorecards. Fightful had the fight a 113-113 draw on its live coverage page.
The co-main event saw Benavidez stop Anthony Dirrell in the ninth round to become the new WBC super middleweight title. After a back-and-forth four rounds to start the fight, Benavidez would go on to dominate the fight, thanks to a left jab that caused a cut to open above Dirrell's right eye. Dirrell would continue to fight back, but Benavidez landed left hooks on the cut and the fight was stopped after Dirrell was hurt and receiving a lot of punishment while pinned to a corner.
Benavidez is now a two-time world champion and won back the WBC title he was stripped off last year when he failed a drug test. Dirrell won the vacant belt earlier this year with a win over Avni Yildirim, leading to the fight between Dirrell and Benavidez.
Fightful's ongoing coverage of Spence vs. Porter continues at this link.
