Ryan Garcia makes the first defence of his WBC welterweight title against Conor Benn on September 12 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and Paulie Malignaggi does not believe it’s a hard fight to call.
Garcia claimed the belt in February with a wide unanimous decision over Mario Barrios, having previously lost his first fight at 147lbs to Rolando Romero. The victory over Barrios secured the first full world title of Garcia’s career and set up a high-profile maiden defence against mandatory challenger Benn.
For Benn, the contest brings a very different challenge. The Brit has not fought at the welterweight limit since stopping Chris van Heerden in April 2022 and has since competed as high as middleweight in two fights with Chris Eubank Jr.
He has already admitted that the cut back down to 147lbs has been ‘brutal’ and confirmed that the Garcia fight will be his final appearance at welterweight before moving back up. His most recent outing came at a 150lb catchweight against Regis Prograis in April.
Former two-weight world champion Malignaggi has now given his verdict to Fight Hub TV on the match-up, and was particularly dismissive of Benn’s credentials at the top level.
“I think [Garcia] knocks [Benn] out, only because Ryan’s strong. Conor’s a tough kid, but he’s not good. And I don’t see how he avoids eventually just getting knocked out. Ryan’s not the kind of guy that will assault you, but he will put hands on you and hit you with a sneaky shot you don’t see.
“Conor doesn’t have the skills to be in there, man. He doesn’t hit hard enough. He wants to hit hard enough, but, I’ll say it bro, after the whole steroids scandal – I know he was cleared and all that – but the guy [was] hitting hard before that, and he hasn’t hit hard after that. It’s kind of self-explanatory in some ways if you want to think about it and generate a pretty strong opinion. I don’t think he’s strong enough or good enough. Ryan, streamer or not, he still had 200 amateur fights and he’s world class.”
The fight will be Benn’s first world title opportunity, while Garcia will be looking to strengthen his position at 147lbs with a successful first defence. The bout headlines a Zuffa Boxing card in Las Vegas and will be shown live on Paramount+ globally, with DAZN carrying it in the UK and Ireland.
