Once the Nevada sun has finished beating down on the circular roof of T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, a cloud will hover above the south end of the Sin City strip.
When Ryan Garcia defends the WBC welterweight title against Conor Benn, the main-event contest pits one of America’s most-divisive boxers against one of Britain’s. These are two fighters who so often entertain in the ring, but whose places in a bout of this magnitude are questionable to say the least.
Garcia is defending the belt he won in May – fairly, even impressively – but his title shot against Mario Barrios came within nine months of his previous outing: a loss to Rolly Romero with the WBA strap on the line, when “King Ryan” was dropped and outpointed in New York City’s Times Square.
Go back one fight further, and Garcia did drop Devin Haney three times en route to a stunning decision win, but this victory was reversed upon the revelation that the 28-year-old had failed a drug test.
Garcia has always proclaimed his innocence, and one might argue that he did his time by serving a one-year ban. But how he went from failing a drug test to fighting for a world title on his comeback, to losing but fighting for another world title in his next bout, is frankly near-impossible to justify.
Looking back at the American’s last five results, they read: win, loss, no-contest, win, loss.
And there are similar questions around the legitimacy of Benn’s place as challenger this weekend.
He will enter Las Vegas with the momentum of back-to-back points wins over former world champions – Regis Prograis and Chris Eubank Jr – but these don’t quite convey the reality of the Briton’s position.
The win against Prograis (past his best, to the point that he retired afterwards) took place at a 150lb catchweight, with Benn hurting the American once but failing to capitalise. The victory over Eubank Jr, whom Benn admittedly dropped twice late on, took place up at middleweight, and it followed a loss to Eubank Jr seven months prior – also at middleweight, where some feel Benn’s rival was drained.
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So, when Benn faces Garcia for the WBC’s prestigious welterweight strap, the 29-year-old will be fighting at 147lb for the first time in two-and-a-half years.
And tracing our way back to Benn’s fight in February 2024 is pertinent. That outing was his second in the US in five months, after he was provisionally suspended from boxing in the UK, having failed two drug tests in summer 2022.
Before those drug tests, Benn was largely living up to his nickname of the “Destroyer”, and he had just dismantled Chris Algieri and Chris van Heerden in legitimate challenges. Since those drug tests, however, he is yet to score a stoppage – including since he was cleared to box in the UK again, in late 2024 – with his style arguably evolving from a seek-and-destroy approach to a volume-heavy one. It is important to note that Benn maintained his innocence throughout the entire drug-test saga.
In any case, against Garcia, he will be keen on a long-awaited trademark performance, especially after his rumoured $15m deal with Zuffa Boxing.
When Benn spoke to The Independent ahead of Saturday’s fight, he said of Garcia: “We’re just not the same. My pillars are very different to his. Mine’s family, working hard, choosing the hard way – because the hard way pays off later on – whereas he’s one of these Gen Z kids, ‘kid-men’ who want an easy life. I’m just not wired that way. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion is my sort of mindset.”
Benn was not speaking about Garcia’s drug-test controversy, but some boxing fans might take issue with the Briton’s words anyway; for all of Benn and Garcia’s protestations, both have been accused of not pursuing the tougher path.
It will be interesting to see who garners the greater support throughout fight week. This year, the term “hate watch” has entered the vernacular of many sports fans: the idea of watching a match with an intense desire for one particular competitor to lose. Arsenal’s loss to PSG in the Champions League was a prime example for many English football fans.
Benn and Garcia both have their detractors. But in Las Vegas, as Mexican Independence Day looms, the Mexican-American boxer is likely to be seen as the hero in T-Mobile Arena – regardless of Garcia’s alleged missteps in recent years.
