Garcia backs up talk, TKO's Benn in second round to retain WBC title — SkimNews
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- Ryan Garcia TKO'd Conor Benn at 1:25 of the second round Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, finishing Benn along the ropes after dropping him with a right hand 20 seconds into the round; referee Thomas Taylor stopped the bout.
- It was Garcia's fastest knockout in six years, since his first-round finish of Francisco Fonseca in February 2020, and his first defense of the WBC welterweight title he captured against Mario Barrios in February.
- Benn (25-2, 14 KOs) suffered the first knockout loss of his career; his only prior defeat was a decision to Chris Eubank Jr. in the first fight of their heated two-fight rivalry last year.
- Garcia (26-0, 21 KOs) immediately called for unification bouts against WBA champion Teofimo Lopez, who sat ringside, and WBO champion Devin Haney, telling Lopez directly, "We've got to clear this [division] out."
- The card marked Benn's first appearance under Zuffa Boxing, funded and promoted by Saudi General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh and Dana White's Zuffa Boxing; Garcia remains under Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, with one fight left on that contract.
- Dana White said a sellout crowd generated an approximately $8 million gate; De La Hoya did not attend the event, though White said the promotion did not bar him.
Why it matters: Garcia's statement win came with immediate calls for a welterweight unification bout against Teofimo Lopez or Devin Haney, validating his power at 147 pounds—he's 2-1 at the weight, with only the overturned Haney no-contest (for ostarine) as a blemish. The roughly $8 million gate and Zuffa Boxing's role point to the commercial scale of Garcia's next move.
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