Ryan Garcia retained his WBC welterweight title with a dominant victory over Conor Benn on Saturday.
After months of build-up, ‘King Ry’ and Benn finally went head to head at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with a lot of talk before the bout surrounding whether Benn would be able to cope with the power of ‘King Ry’ back at 147lbs.
It turned out that he was unable to, as Garcia dropped his rival with a big right hand after just two rounds, and while Benn managed to get back to his feet, a further onslaught on the ropes led to the referee to jump in and wave off the contest.
One man that was in attendance to witness Garcia’s win was four-division world champion Shakur Stevenson, who has been linked to a fight against ‘King Ry’ over the past year.
Speaking on the Paramount post-fight show, Stevenson was full of praise for Garcia after his victory.
“I thought it was a tremendous performance, he established himself and hit Benn with good shots early. Once he dropped him I knew the fight was over. He did a tremendous job and I commend him.
While a fight between Garcia and WBO super-lightweight champion Stevenson would certainly interest boxing fans, it seems that ‘King Ry’ has his attention elsewhere after he called out Teofimo Lopez during his in-ring interview after defeating Benn.
Lopez became WBA welterweight champion after defeating Rolly Romero last month, while a potential battle against former rival and WBO welterweight champion Devin Haney could also be a possibility for Garcia.
