Ryan Garcia says Conor Benn handed him the finish by rushing it.
Garcia stopped Benn in the second round at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday in the first defense of the WBC welterweight title he took from Mario Barrios in February. A right hand put Benn down and referee Thomas Taylor waved it off around 20 seconds later with Garcia lining up more.
He told the DAZN broadcast that the opening round gave him everything he needed.
I was so prepared and so focused, what a performance. The first round I knew he was going to apply mad pressure. I caught him a few times and I let him have his way, but the second round I stood my ground a little more and knew I would catch him, because he was coming in reckless and you can’t do that against me.
The gap was wider than most had it. Benn went in a clear underdog, having not made 147lbs in over four years, but plenty expected his durability to carry him deeper than two rounds.
Where Garcia goes next is a business question rather than a sporting one. He has one fight left on his Golden Boy contract before becoming a free agent, and Dana White said at the post-fight press conference that he has already had a brief conversation with him about fighting under the Zuffa banner.
Yeah, I don’t know what will happen with Garcia, we’ll see how this whole thing plays out, he has one more fight with De La Hoya.
Oscar De La Hoya was not in the building. Garcia said he had asked his promoter to walk to the ring with him and was disappointed he did not turn up at all. White denied banning him, saying he would have made a phone call rather than have him treated badly at the venue, while Dan Rafael reported that De La Hoya had been barred.
Golden Boy has spent the year fighting Zuffa over its own fighter. The company sent a cease-and-desist to Zuffa, TKO, Paramount and Sela in June over talks with Garcia about this very fight.
