With some time removed from his stoppage loss to Ryan Garcia in a bid to win a welterweight title, Conor Benn talks to Sky Sports about where things went wrong for him and moving on after now realizing trying to cut back down to 147 lbs probably wasn’t the best idea, but that he just had to take the opportunity presented. Here’s some of what he had to say below.
Benn on his loss to Garcia
“Listen, it’s a hard pill to swallow,” said Benn. “I always want to be victorious. No one likes losing, you know. You always want to come
first place. So for me it’s just one of those things, you go swimming, you get wet. And I always said I wanted to be in exciting fights. If I get caught, I get caught. It was my day, I got caught, we keep it moving.”
On if he believed the stoppage came too soon
“It’s hard to say. Listen, I respect the referee and it’s the referee’s job to keep the fighter’s safe. Obviously me, knowing my style and knowing who I am, would I have liked him to let the fight carry on? Of course. But I’m not going to argue with the referee. He’s there to do his job and he’s done his job. If he didn’t think I was fit to continue then that was his call on the night. But ultimately you go swimming, you get wet, you keep it moving.”
On his weight cut to 147 for that fight
“I don’t know what I was thinking making 147. You think I’m right now about 185, 186 lbs. So for me making 147 — a lot of people said I can’t do it and of course inner me was like ‘alright cool, you can’t do it, watch me.’ Alright, there’s one thing making the weight and it’s one thing performing your best at the weight and it showed. I paid the price for chasing greatness.”
On where he plans to campaign
“My future’s at middleweight. I thought about light middle, um, there’s nothing in me light middle even. That’s how bad the weight cut was. There’s no excuses, though. Ryan was a phenomenal fighter, caught me with a phenomenal shot and he was the better man on the night. I dust the cobwebs off and come back and be a better version of myself.”
On when he wants to return
“I’m just enjoying time with the family. I know the [Manny] Pacquiao fight was offered to me for December and I wasn’t ready to get the fight done in December, but if he wants to do Q1 next year, we can do Pacquiao.”
