Conor Benn is set to compete for Ryan Garcia’s WBC welterweight strap next Saturday in a first career world title challenge, but one Hall of Famer believes that the Briton has ‘no chance in hell’.
Benn has not competed at welterweight since April 2022, but the Essex-based contender is set to return to the weight division next weekend, despite twice fighting as a middleweight last year, in two clashes with fierce rival Chris Eubank Jr.
Ahead of his return to the division, Benn has already revealed that he does not plan to stick around at 147lbs regardless of the outcome of his showdown with Garcia, with a brutal weight cut convincing him that he needs to fight at either super-welterweight or middleweight in the future.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, after seeing photos of Benn’s strenuous weight cut, three-division world champion James Toney empathised with ‘The Destroyer’ but declared that he has ‘no chance’ of pulling off the upset.
“I know how it feels [to cut a lot of weight] because I have been in that situation when I fought Roy Jones Jr, I couldn’t make the weight and it makes you do crazy things and I lost the fight, but he didn’t do me like he did everybody else. He didn’t knock me out, he didn’t knock me down, but it is what it is.
“No, Conor can win this fight? No chance in hell, but I hope he can get rehydrated enough [to make it a better watch].”
‘Lights Out’ Toney then went on to provide a precise prediction for the bout, believing that ‘King Ry’ will close the show inside five rounds and do so with an uppercut, left-hook, two-punch combination.
“Five rounds. Ryan, he has that ‘IT’ factor, he has the IT factor in training, he is a great trainer and he trains all the types of stuff that he needs to be doing.
“I think that he is going to knock him out with an uppercut, left-hook.”
Garcia-Benn takes place at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, September 12, with Jai Opetaia poised to collide with reigning WBC cruiserweight world champion Noel Mikaelian in the co-main event of the bill.
