Conor Benn is set for a showdown with WBC welterweight champion Ryan Garcia next weekend, and one of Benn’s former opponents has predicted how the bout will play out.
Benn has not scored a stoppage win since moving out of the welterweight division four years ago after a failed drugs test, but when he was last operating at the weight, he was perceived to be somewhat of a knockout artist.
‘The Destroyer’ scored emphatic wins inside of the distance against former world champions Chris Algieri and Chris van Heerden in his final two outings at welterweight, as he homed in on a world title shot prior to his career being derailed.
Since those wins, the Brit has fought twice at 154lbs in the US and then twice at middleweight in a bitter and high-profile rivalry with Chris Eubank Jr.
His latest outing came in April against Regis Prograis at a catchweight of 150lbs. Again, Benn was unable to score the stoppage over the ageing former champion, but won widely on the cards.
That shot has now come around, but Algieri himself told Fight Hub TV that he does not see how Benn, who has said this will be his final appearance at welterweight, will be able to capitalise following a brutal weight cut.
“I was picking Ryan either way, but the way that he [Benn] is looking and the way that he is talking, already saying that ‘I am not making 147lbs again, I am not going to fight at 147lbs again’, a month out – that is not a good sign.
“He also didn’t look very good in the Prograis fight, leading up to that, and that was at 150lbs!
You have to lose another two-and-a-half pounds on the tail-end of the 20lbs that you have already lost, he was posting pictures weighing 180lbs and now he has got to be 147lbs and he looks like a completely different person.”
Garcia-Benn takes place on Saturday, September 12, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Jai Opetaia set to collide with reigning WBC cruiserweight world champion, Noel Mikaelian, in the co-main event.
Should Garcia retain the belt, he will likely target a unification against new WBA champion Teofimo Lopez. If Benn sticks to his word that he will move up in weight win, lose or draw, the WBC title will become vacant.
