Now just a couple of days out before his welterweight title defense, Ryan Garcia shares some of his final thoughts before heading into his showdown against Conor Benn. In particular, Garcia explains how he’s the best version of himself at the moment and why all of his experience and skill will be too much for Benn to handle in the ring.
Garcia on feeling confident heading into this fight
“It starts with your preparation and your mindset and all the things that I’ve been through in my career. I know I’ve been professional since I was 17 and I’ve had
big fights since I was fighting Luke Campbell at 21, and I started off early fighting big fights because people put the pressure on me. And I took a couple bumps and bruises along the way but that built my character and matured me as the fighter that I am today and I just take all that experience that I learned from the Tank fight, from the Devin Haney fight, from all these fights before I was a champion. And now that I am it, I know what to do, what not to do, and how to stay in tune.”
On Benn saying this will be his last fight at 147
“I’m a bit disappointed in him. I think that you could save those comments until after the fight. You’re kind of robbing the fans of an experience, you’re kind of telling them ‘I’m going to be weak, I’m probably going to get my ass whooped and then I’m leaving to where I’m going to be stronger.’ People can read between the lines.
“It would’ve been an issue if there was a rehydration clause. I didn’t put that on him like Tank put it on me, so I don’t want to hear no crybaby shit. You can go up to 170, 175. When I fought Tank Davis I had to go to 136 and I could only be 146 [on fight day]. So miss me with the crybaby shit and get ready to fight.”
On expecting Benn to fight him in an aggressive manner
“Come get this work. Come bring the fight. We never really run so you already know what kind of fight this is going to be. But, again, the experience, the speed, the timing is going to be too much for him. It’s going to overwhelm him and we’re going to get him out of there.”
