Conor Benn was not given much of a chance to showcase what he and trainer Tony Sims had worked on in camp when he faced Ryan Garcia in Las Vegas earlier this month.
In his first world title challenge, Benn was caught in the second round and finished by Garcia, who retained his WBC welterweight strap and ended the Brit’s dreams of holding the green and gold belt at 147lbs.
Speaking to the Ring Magazine, Sims said that he was happy with the direction the fight was going at the end of the first round, but that his charge got caught with an unexpected right hand and ‘that’s boxing.’
“Really, he just got caught with an unbelievable shot, that’s boxing. The plan was to put Ryan under pressure and try and work inside. [Conor Benn] was always looking to try and defend against the left hook, and he got caught with an unbelievable right hand.
“It was a great shot. There are no excuses. You can’t really say anything about that. I thought he did the right thing when Ryan came in, he held him, slipping and sliding. I don’t think he took any more shots on the ropes. I think the stoppage was a bit early, really, but we’re not making any excuses.
“Towards the end of the first round, obviously we’d worked to get inside and work the body, that was the main thing. He did put him under pressure and got his body shots off at the end of the round. I thought, if we keep doing this the next few rounds, start closing him down, [Conor] can cause him problems. Obviously, you can’t stand off him because of his hand speed and boxing, Conor would’ve had no chance. That was the whole plan.”
As for Garcia, he continues to call for a unification bout with Teofimo Lopez next year, but has said he would like to defend his belt in December.
