Conor Benn will fight Ryan Garcia on 12 September, it has been announced, as the British star seemingly challenges the American for the WBC welterweight title.
The two stars have been linked for some time, but they will officially square off at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Mexican Independence Weekend.
The bout was announced on Wednesday by Zuffa Boxing chief Dana White, best known as the president and CEO of mixed-martial-arts behemoth the UFC.
Britain’s Benn split from his longtime promoter Eddie Hearn to join White and Zuffa in February, in one of the most-shocking developments in boxing’s recent history.
Hearn and his company Matchroom had promoted the welterweight for his entire career, and had stuck by him during a two-year saga that began when Benn failed two drug tests in 2022. Benn in fact signed with Zuffa just days after another verbal attack on Hearn, 47, by White, 56.
American Garcia, 27, will seemingly defend the WBC title against Benn, 29, having won the belt in his most-recent fight. A title defence would come in spite of the traditional governing bodies’ issues with Zuffa, which launched in January and has its own title belts.
In February, Garcia dropped Mario Barrios in the first round en route to a decision win, with which he collected the WBC title to finally become a full world champion.
That win also saw Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs) bounce back from his second career loss, a points upset by Rolly Romero, who dropped “King Ryan” in that bout.
Benn (25-1, 14 KOs) also knows what it takes to bounce back; after a decision loss to fierce rival Chris Eubank Jr last April, Benn dropped his fellow Briton and secured a points win in a November rematch.
Those bouts took place at middleweight, and Benn dropped down to a 150lb catchweight in his most-recent outing, a points win against Regis Prograis in April.
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