Ryan Garcia announced a fight with Conor Benn last night on “Late Night,” telling host Jimmy Fallon that the fight is set.
Before continuing, it should be said that Ryan Garcia has had a habit in his career of “announcing” fights before they’re actually concrete. The fight has been rumored and buzzed about for a bit now, and it makes sense for both sides, so it’s entirely possible this is all legit, but it is worth noting.
That said, Garcia says the fight with Benn will happen on September 12 in Las
Vegas. We know that Canelo Alvarez will also be fighting on September 12, albeit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, so it’s possible that the two shows could happen on the same date in very different time zones, which would lead to Canelo vs Mbilli wrapping up about when the Garcia vs Benn undercard would be starting.
“I can say that we are fighting September 12th, it will be in Vegas,” Garcia told Fallon. “I’ll just say his name. His name is Conor Benn. And he’s talking a lot, he’s talking crazy. He actually confronted me at an award show two years ago, and my wife was there he just pressed up on me, grabbed me. Yeah, so it’s a little personal.”
Garcia (25-2, 20 KO) beat Mario Barrios to win the WBC welterweight title on February 21 in Las Vegas, while Benn (25-1, 14 KO) labored through a fairly unimpressive decision victory over a clearly physically compromised Regis Prograis on April 11 in London.
Benn, 29, has not actually made the welterweight limit for a fight since April 2022, when he beat Chris van Heerden, the last fight he had before failing a drug test that put his career on hold for about a year and delayed a fight with Chris Eubank Jr for nearly three years.
Garcia, 27, also had a doping scandal in 2024, following a now-overturned win over Devin Haney.
