Conor Benn’s world title dreams lasted less than five minutes, and former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi isn’t softening his assessment of what he saw.
Benn was stopped inside two rounds by Ryan Garcia this past Saturday, with Garcia retaining his WBC welterweight title in dominant fashion. The lopsided result left plenty of fighters and critics disappointed, with many arguing Benn was massively overmatched and shouldn’t have been in line for the title shot in the first place.
Speaking to Pro Box TV, Malignaggi didn’t mince words, calling Benn a genuinely poor boxer by world-class standards.
Conor Benn is, by the standards of world-class boxing, terrible. Terrible boxer.
Malignaggi argued Benn’s real missed opportunity came earlier, suggesting he should have chased the WBC title while Mario Barrios still held it rather than spending his recent run fighting Chris Eubank Jr. twice.
He noted Barrios had real vulnerabilities as champion, a tendency to hold his guard high and not punch enough. He felt Benn’s hunger and determination might have been enough to steal a world championship in that matchup, calling it likely the best realistic shot Benn will ever get at world honors.
I’m not sure he could have [beaten Mario Barrios]. I think maybe on hunger and determination, Conor is a hungry kid, I will give him that. He is a determined kid and Barrios is a bit gun-shy, a bit high-guard and doesn’t throw enough punches at times.
“There was an opportunity there possibly, because Barrios sucked as a world champion as well, to tell you the truth. There was an opportunity [for Benn] to out-hustle Barrios and possibly sneak in a world championship. It would definitely have been his best chance ever.
By contrast, he described the Garcia fight as looking like two entirely different levels of the sport colliding.
Last night was a shot against a world champion of his generation, it looked like they were doing two different sports. It looked like he didn’t belong in the ring.
Benn is expected to move back up to middleweight or super-middleweight following the first stoppage loss of his career, with a possible trilogy fight against Eubank Jr. reportedly back on the table.
