Having previously shared four rounds of sparring with Conor Benn, former world champion Shawn Porter has considered how the Brit might fare against Ryan Garcia.
‘The Destroyer’ comes off a comfortable 10-round points victory over Regis Prograis, featuring on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov last month.
In doing so, he remained in the win column at a catchweight of 150lbs after exacting his revenge over Chris Eubank Jr in their middleweight rematch last November.
As the WBC’s highest-ranked welterweight contender, though, Benn is set to drop back down to 147lbs in pursuit of a showdown with Ryan Garcia.
The American claimed his WBC world title in February, dethroning Mario Barrios with a one-sided points victory after flooring his man in the opening round.
As a result, Garcia secured his first victory since scoring an eighth-round finish over Oscar Duarte in 2023, which was followed by a no-contest against Devin Haney and a unanimous decision loss to Rolando Romero.
Hoping for a more consistent run of form, the 27-year-old is set to defend his title later this year, perhaps in the summer, with mandatory challenger Benn having emerged as a likely opponent.
But while crediting Benn for his “versatility”, Porter has told Boxing King Media that he believes the speed of Garcia could potentially lead to a dramatic finish.
“Based on how Ryan Garcia looked in his last fight, it looks like he beats Conor Benn.
“The style clash favours Ryan Garcia because of his speed – because of his power from the outside – so it’s definitely a tough fight for Conor Benn.
“I would say 60/40 [that] Ryan Garcia wins that fight, possibly [by] KO. But Conor is very tough. That’s what I already knew about him, but I got to see it first-hand when we sparred.
“He’s much more versatile than [what] we saw in the first fight with Eubank. He comes back in the rematch against Eubank and we see the versatility, we see the speed, the foot movement and things of that nature.
“Those were the things I saw when I sparred him for four easy rounds.”
Despite their related history of failing doping tests, or perhaps partly because of it, a clash between Garcia and Benn is likely to attract considerable attention.
