The WBC welterweight world title fight, staged at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on a card organized by The Ring in collaboration with Zuffa Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions, lasted barely a round and a half. That was all world champion Ryan Garcia needed to dispose of his overmatched challenger, Britain’s Conor Benn, who was dropped in the second round and stopped by the referee shortly afterward.
It does not take a boxing genius to understand that charging forward from the opening bell is hardly a brilliant idea when facing Ryan Garcia. Given his hand speed, the WBC champion is particularly dangerous while he is fresh, which is why Benn would have been wise to adopt a more conservative approach, even at the cost of giving away some early rounds, before gradually increasing the intensity as the fight progressed. Ring intelligence, however, did not prove to be one of the challenger’s greatest strengths.
The British fighter immediately applied pressure and found himself on the receiving end of two left hooks during the opening exchanges, one of which briefly staggered him. In addition to making a questionable tactical choice, Benn also displayed considerable technical shortcomings: his attacks were frantic and disorganized, and he failed to adequately protect his face with his gloves, making the champion’s task even easier.
Garcia absorbed a few shots in the second half of the opening round only when he went into a defensive shell and allowed his opponent to fight at close range. Whenever he stayed on his toes and used his punches to keep Benn at bay, however, he controlled proceedings with ease. There was no doubt whatsoever about who won the first round, which all three judges duly awarded to King Ry.
In the second round, Conor Benn’s reckless strategy, combined with his technical deficiencies, brought the fight to a premature conclusion. The British fighter lunged forward completely exposed, and his suicidal assault was punished by a right hook flush to the face that sent him crashing to the canvas.
Although he appeared badly shaken, Benn got back to his feet and tried to stay in the fight, but Garcia immediately trapped him against the ropes with the clear intention of delivering the finishing blow. Referee Thomas Taylor’s stoppage shortly afterward appeared somewhat premature, as Garcia had not landed any particularly damaging shots and Benn still seemed lucid enough to attempt to defend himself. That said, this writer’s impression is that the end was already just around the corner.
What we witnessed only adds to the doubts of those who have struggled to understand the financial logic behind Zuffa Boxing’s major investment to lure Conor Benn away from Matchroom Boxing. Granted, his two all-British clashes with Chris Eubank Jr drew tens of thousands of people to the stadium, but much of the fans’ curiosity stemmed from the pairing of their famous surnames and nostalgia for their fathers’ rivalry. Now that Benn has shown himself to be light-years away from the very top of world boxing, how many people will be willing to pay to watch him fight again?
Naturally, some will now try to attribute this heavy defeat to the weight class in which the fight took place, arguing that the challenger entered the ring weakened after having to get below the 147-pound limit for the first time in four years.
That may well be true, but it does not erase Benn’s disastrous game plan, nor does it make the countless technical mistakes he committed in less than a round and a half any less serious or obvious. The truth, in this writer’s view, is that with a different surname, Conor would have seriously struggled to rise above the domestic competition and earn his way onto the international stage.
There is little to say about the winner, who did exactly what he had to do to get the job done quickly and can now look around for more demanding and intriguing challenges. A rematch with Devin Haney, with the WBC and WBO belts on the line, would undoubtedly draw a huge crowd, while a unification bout with newly crowned WBA champion Teofimo Lopez could also prove fascinating.