Ryan Garcia retained his WBC Welterweight title this past Saturday night (Sept. 12, 2026) in Las Vegas, Nevada by making easy work of Conor Benn, dismantling him in the second round with a ferocious knockout (see it again here).
A few days removed from his impressive performance, Garcia revealed that he hurt his hand the following day, but it wasn’t as a result of his vicious strikes on “The Destroyer.” During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Garcia stated that he hurt his right hand (the
one that dropped Benn) after he got into a bareknuckle brawl with one of his friends in the hotel room.
Seriously.
“I hurt my hand more-so fighting someone on Sunday night. The homie wanted that work, I still had energy so I said let’s get it,” said Ryan while showing off his bruised knuckles. “We just started brawling in the room. He wanted that work so I gave it to him, bareknuckle. He wanted the smoke, easy work.”
I’ve gotten into some tussles with “the homies” in my lifetime, but none of them are world champion boxers, so there’s that.
Ryan did not delve in further details but did reveal that his friend is not a professional boxer, so making light work of him was no surprise. Then again, publicly stating that he beat up his friend in a hotel room is probably not the smartest of things to do to prevent any future legal matters. But if he is a true “homie” and if it was nothing more than some playful sparring, then Garcia probably has nothing to worry about.
Right?
As far as what could be next for Garcia in a sanctioned professional fight, he is targeting a showdown against WBA Super Welterweight division kingpin, Teofimo Lopez, which would be another great matchup that would help “King Ry” cement himself as the face of boxing should he prove victorious.
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