Conor Benn is scheduled to challenge for Ryan Garcia’s WBC welterweight belt in September, and, ahead of his maiden world title challenge, he has addressed concerns as to whether he can comfortably make the 147lb weight limit.
Benn was at welterweight prior to his 2022 failed doping tests, but fought at super-welterweight – against Rodolfo Orozco and Peter Dobson – and then twice against Chris Eubank Jr at middleweight before announcing his plans to drop back to 147lbs at the beginning of this year.
The Brit was named as the WBC mandatory challenger and faced Regis Prograis in a 150lb catchweight affair back in April, in his first fight since signing with Zuffa Boxing, to make his way back down.
Benn was unable to dispatch of Prograis, despite the American former champion entering the ring with a number of injuries, leaving fans concerned as to whether ‘The Destroyer’ had outgrown welterweight.
Still, the 29-year-old has now been confirmed for a challenge for Garcia’s belt, but Benn admitted that the weight cut ‘will not be pleasant’ in an interview with MMA Fighting, before explaining that he believes this to be the key reason why Garcia has agreed to the fight.
“The weight cut is hard. I’ve already started the weight cut – it is not pleasant. He [Garcia] is banking on me [struggling].
“You have got to remember, he weren’t calling me out before the Eubank fights, he weren’t calling me out after the Eubank fights, then as soon as the Regis fight was done – ‘cool, let me call him out, let’s have the fight now,’ it just goes to show who he is at heart.
“He ain’t taking this fight for legacy, he ain’t taking this fight for anything other than trying to pick an easy fight. The WBC made me mandatory for this fight, I’d like to see him go up to middleweight.”
Garcia-Benn will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 12, with Jai Opetaia set to appear on the undercard.
