Conor Benn has watched the footage of his father Nigel’s first-round stoppage over Iran Barkley at the hotel once known as Bally’s Las Vegas for the WBO middleweight title.
Said the 29-year-old British middleweight bound to challenge Ryan Garcia at T-Mobile Arena: “Hopefully the Garcia fight goes exactly the same way.”
A boxer not by birth but choice as the son of a two-weight world champion, the younger Benn, 29, can have his moment and spoil Garcia’s Saturday night. As the mandatory challenger for the WBC welterweight title won by Garcia in February, Benn intends to leave his mark in Las Vegas like his father 36 years prior.
Natural weight or not.
Benn (25-1, 14 knockouts) hasn’t scaled the welterweight limit of 147 pounds in more than four years, fighting last year at 160 pounds against Chris Eubank Jr., his dad’s rival’s son. By splitting their matchups before rowdy crowds at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, he has burnished his billing for a bout with Garcia, who counts as one of their sport’s top draws.
“For this opportunity, I’d make 140 (pounds),” said Benn, who last beat Regis Prograis at a 150-pound cap and hasn’t yet challenged for a world title. “I can’t do no more. I can’t do more than I’ve already done or been doing. I’ve given 110 percent. Even the days where I only have 10 percent in me, I still give 100 percent of that 10 percent.”
The elder Benn, a star in Britain and also Las Vegas in 1990, didn’t coax his son into boxing, but the younger Benn couldn’t help following his path. He took up the trade as a teenager and turned professional sans extensive amateur polish — debuting at 19 and building his profile in England throughout his first 21 fights.
The matchup with Eubank, a British bonanza, was originally scheduled in 2022, but Benn incurred a yearlong suspension for testing positive for a performance enhancer. A pre-fight test turned up for clomifene — a banned substance he has repeatedly denied knowingly consuming — and halted his momentum, triggering turmoil internally.
“Forget boxing, forget all of that,” said Benn, his tattooed torso, arms and neck framing his face with his bleached blonde hair. “Going through what I went through and coming through the other end — I’ve had to show more resilience, strength, integrity, grit in them decisions alone that I have for my whole career.”
Benn ended a 17-month layoff in 2023 with a junior middleweight win in Orlando and followed in 2024 at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas with another junior middleweight win. Without flashing the pop and power he had before his positive clomifene test, he first fought Eubank a year ago in April — losing a thrilling but unanimous decision.
But dominating their November rematch led to his illogical installation as the top contender for the WBC’s welterweight title despite his abandonment of the division. The came a deal with Zuffa Boxing, organizers of his matchup with Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs), who knows the perils of fighting depleted.
Garcia’s loss in 2023 to Gervonta Davis was at 136 pounds with a rehydration clause, unlike his matchup with Benn.
“I don’t have any sympathy for him,” Garcia said. “I had to do it. Everybody has to do it. UFC fighters have to do it. .. It’s really not that bad.”
Bad or not, it’s what Benn agreed to in order to fight for Garcia’s title and score top billing in Las Vegas. He said he doesn’t talk about boxing with his father, preferring instead to talk about life.
That might change if he beats Garcia thousands of miles away from home.
“He’s my idol,” Benn said of his dad. “I don’t ever see myself separated from my dad. I don’t see myself out of my dad’s shadow so to speak. I think when you idolize someone and their career and what they achieved — I’m always my dad’s son and they sort of come as one. Because I am a product of my old man.”
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on X.
Fight Night
Who: Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn; 12 rounds; WBC welterweight title
What: 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV: Paramount+ (streaming)
Tickets: Starting at $188 on axs.com
Odds: Garcia -325, Benn +240
