It remains unclear when Conor Benn will return to the ring, but Tony Bellew has suggested a potential opponent who could make ‘the country go wild’.
Last month, Benn made the dramatic drop down to welterweight in pursuit of Ryan Garcia’s WBC welterweight world title – despite his two outings in 2025 taking place up at middleweight – and it showed on fight night as the Briton was halted by ‘King Ry’ inside just two rounds.
Whilst Benn was unable to capture world honours, one of his countrymen retained his world title on Saturday night, as Sheffield’s Dalton Smith outpointed Alberto Puello by the barest of margins to keep a hold of his WBC super-lightweight crown.
Speaking during the aftermath on the DAZN broadcast, Bellew suggested a possible all-British bout between Benn and Smith, despite what will be a minimum 20-pound weight difference if Benn returns at 160lbs as expected.
“It doesn’t matter what weight it [a fight with Dalton Smith] is at. If Dalton Smith fights Conor Benn, it takes over this whole country, it does!
“If Dalton Smith fights Conor Benn, this country goes wild and that is the fight that explodes him to the grandmother. That is fight that explodes him to the young little kids. That is the fight that you want.”
Bellew went on to explain why he believes Smith would be willing to accept that fight in front of a world title unification.
“Conor fights wherever the money is and do you want me to tell something? Now that Dalton Smith has achieved his lifelong dream and got that WBC belt – that is what Dalton wants now, as well.
“Dalton wants the money fights, Dalton wants the legacy fights, because he has achieved his dream.
“I know that he will want to unify – he is good enough to unify by the way – but if someone comes along and says, ‘you know what, do you want to unify for a million or do you want to fight this kid for five million?’, [he would take the latter].”
During his post-fight interview, Smith called for a showdown with pound-for-pound star and fellow super-lightweight world champion, Shakur Stevenson, who is looking for an opponent following his release from Zuffa Boxing.
