Ryan Garcia blows away Conor Benn in 2nd round, retains 147 title
After devastating performance calls out Teofimo Lopez to unify
Ryan Garcia predicted he would knock out Conor Benn inside five rounds. He could have said inside two and still been right.
In a devastating performance, Garcia scored a hard knockdown in the second round and then stopped Benn later in the round to retain the WBC welterweight title in Zuffa Boxing’s Paramount+ main event on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
After getting dropped and doing almost nothing in a decision loss to Rolando Romero for the vacant WBA “regular” title 16 months ago, Garcia has looked outstanding in his two fights since.
He dropped Mario Barrios in the first round and cruised to a one-sided decision to take his WBC belt in February, also at T-Mobile Arena, and made his first defense against Benn in explosive fashion.
“I was like, ‘I can’t let this guy beat me,’ so that was my mentality,” Garcia said. “Look, in the first round, (the plan was) just protect yourself. You don’t gotta do too much. He’s gonna do too much and I’ll settle in the fight when I have to. I didn’t think I was gonna knock him out that quick. But you never know in boxing, right? But I timed him and then got him out of there. He was pretty good. He just kind of got too overly aggressive.”
Both fighters came out fast to start the fight, setting an intense pace and throwing big shots almost immediately.
Garcia got in a few left hooks while Benn, whose face was quickly marked up, tried to force himself inside in what quickly became a firefight. But it did not last much longer.
In the second round, Garcia, who is known for his electric left hook, landed a massive right hand down the middle that Benn never saw. The shot dropped him hard in the center of the ring.
Benn beat the count but was clearly hurt. Garcia forced him to the ropes and unleashed a flurry of punches. Three of them connected and rocked Benn, and referee Thomas Taylor waved it off at 1 minute, 25 seconds. Benn did not complain about the stoppage.
“He couldn’t take the pressure, and I knew that my experience, in these moments, on how to stay locked in, no matter what, no matter how big the stage is, was gonna get him, because when we were in the face off at the weigh-in, I was looking at him, and he didn’t even want to move,” Garcia said. “So I was like, ‘He’s freezing up. I’m gonna beat him up.’
“Let me just take my time. He’s gonna come out crazy because he needs to let go all this nervous energy. So let me just time him and in the second round, I said, ‘I’m gonna stand my ground a little bit, and then I’m gonna unload on him.’ It feels like a dream right now.”
According to CompuBox, Garcia landed 24 of 72 punches (33 percent) and Benn landed 13 of 60 (22 percent). Garcia outlanded him 13-0 in the second round.
The revelation about Garcia’s destructive performance was that he did the biggest damage with his right hand instead of the hook. The knockdown he scored against Barrios was also with his right hand.
“I’ve always had a right hand, but I always had injuries,” Garcia said. “So, it’s just kind of the first two fights I had no injuries on my right hand, and I’m just happy, man. I’m blessed, and I want to thank Conor for a great buildup, a great match. I respect him.”
Garcia (26-2, 21 KOs), 28, of Los Angeles, a Mexican-American, added that it was a proud moment for him to win on Mexican Independence Day weekend, a traditional date for a major Mexican fight. He then addressed what Zuffa Boxing announced as a sold-out crowd of 18,855.
“I’m blessed to fight on this day, you know? Mexico Independence Day,” Garcia said. “I want to say a few words from my heart about this, about me being Mexican-American. I know some people don’t see me as Mexican because I don’t speak Spanish, but just know my love never goes away from you guys. I always love you, and I’m gonna always fight strong. Viva, Mexico!”
Zuffa Boxing promoter Dana White, Benn’s promoter, came away impressed by Garcia, who has one more fight remaining with Golden Boy Promotions.
“Ryan looked incredible,” White said. “He did everything he said he would do.”
Benn (25-2, 14 KOs), 29, of England, the son of Hall of Fame former middleweight and super middleweight titleholder and ringside observer Nigel Benn, was taking a step up in competition and also returning to the welterweight division for the first time since 2022 in an effort to win a WBC title he coveted because his father had once held a WBC belt.
For all of the talk during the buildup of how much both fighters claimed to struggle making weight, it did not appear to be a factor. Garcia said he proved his point with the knockout.
“(My) statement was he was nowhere near my level and when I’m on point, when I’m on my A game, I’m one hell of a fighter to try to beat,” Garcia said. “It’s gonna take a motherfucker to beat me.”
As one of boxing’s biggest stars, and with a world title, Garcia will be able to dictate a series of major fights.
He said that is what he wants to do, be it a unification bout with WBA titlist and three-division titleholder Teofimo Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs), who dethroned Romero on Aug. 22; a rematch with WBO titlist Devin Haney (33-0, 15 KOs), who Garcia dropped three times in a 2024 decision win when Haney held the WBC junior welterweight title but saw the result changed to a no contest when Garcia tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug; or an eventual showdown with lineal/WBO junior welterweight champion Shakur Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs). He was part of the Paramount+ broadcast team and had a respectful back-and-forth with Garcia during the post-fight show.
“We got to clear this shit out. You know? Hopefully, we get to beat David Haney’s ass again,” Garcia said.
As for Stevenson, Garcia said, “He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing in the ring. He has a lot of great mentors. If we could rumble one day, we should do it. I think that the boxing world would love to see it. It’s a great matchup. It only makes sense.”
Stevenson agreed that eventually it would be the big fight to make.
Lopez and Haney were also in attendance and after the bout, Garcia called Lopez into the ring, though security denied him entrance.
“Teofimo, get that ass up here, where you at? Unified time! Where you at Teofimo,” Garcia yelled. “He want to get crazy, we can get crazy. It really don’t matter. I’ll beat your ass right now!”
Garcia said Lopez is who he wants next. That’s a fight that makes sense because Garcia will be back on DAZN for his next fight on a Golden Boy event and Lopez recently signed directly with DAZN and does not have a promoter.
“I think he’s weak in his defense,” Garcia said. “I think that people kind of overrate his defense. I think he’s much easier to hit than people think he is and I think that I will knock him out. I think that my punch is heavy and once I crack him, I think that he’ll stumble and I’ll get him out of there. Now, I’m not gonna say he’s gonna be the easiest fight, but I know I’ll get him out of there.
“He’s small. This man is not a 147-pounder, I’ll tell you that. And when I was in front of him, he’s small. He’s gonna get beat up by me bad. Look, if the fans want to it, let’s do it. I mean, he has a belt. Let’s unify. Why not?”
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