A WBC welterweight title shot looms for Conor Benn against champion Ryan Garcia, and the Brit’s most recent opponent, Regis Prograis, has weighed in on how it plays out.
After two fights with Chris Eubank Jr up at middleweight, Benn revealed his plans to return to welterweight and compete for world honours, eyeing up a high-profile stateside showdown with Garcia, who defeated Mario Barrios to become WBC champion back in February.
On his way back down to 147lbs, Benn stopped off in a 150lb catchweight bout against Prograis as he made his debut with Zuffa Boxing, but he somewhat underwhelmed, unable to dispatch of the New Orleans’ operator despite the visitor carrying multiple pre-fight injuries.
Still, on ‘The Punch Podcast’, Prograis, who has now retired, declared that he is leaning towards Benn in his potential fight with Garcia, but offered some words of advice to ‘The Destroyer’.
“That is a great fight. I think that Ryan is a better boxer all round, but Conor is a better fighter. If he box him, like he did with Barrios, I think that Ryan will beat him easily. But, if they get into a dog fight, I would go more towards Conor’s way because Conor is a fighter.
“Conor is not polished, Conor is a fighter. Conor hits very hard, but you see it. Maybe Conor does see this and tries to hide his punches a little bit. When you strong, you want to have sneaky power, Conor has a lot of power but you see it all coming, you can see everything coming.”
“I think that he could beat Ryan. For me, I would go for Conor Benn if they fought.”
According to Garcia, the fight is set to take place on Saturday, September 12, in Las Vegas, but will not clash with Canelo Alvarez’s bid to reclaim the super-middleweight title on the same date, with that event taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a few hours prior.
