{"id":602357,"date":"2026-04-12T16:16:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602357\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T16:16:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:16:30","slug":"conor-benn-slams-coward-ryan-garcia-after-social-media-barb-wheres-he-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602357\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor Benn slams ‘coward’ Ryan Garcia after social media barb: ‘Where’s he been?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conor Benn has branded Ryan Garcia a “coward” after being called out by the American following his comprehensive points victory over Regis Prograis<\/a> at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.<\/p>\n

Benn set his sights on WBC world welterweight champion Garcia<\/a> after completing 10 hard rounds in a 150lbs catchweight contest against Prograis, who later announced his retirement and confirmed rumours that he was injured heading into the fight.<\/p>\n

Garcia used social media to accept Benn’s challenge, renamed his rival “Connor Bumm” and predicted he would end their clash, which is likely to take place in September, in the sixth or seventh round.<\/p>\n

“Of course he calls me out now, he’s a coward. He probably thinks ‘oh, you know, how’s Conor looking at 147?’,” Benn told Ring Magazine, referencing the welterweight limit of 147lbs at which he has not fought since 2022.<\/p>\n

“He wasn’t calling me out for the past two years. Where’s he been while I’ve been vocal and actively chasing that fight? It’s cowardly, but he can get it next. And he’ll get a better version of me.<\/p>\n

“It’s Ryan Garcia next. I want a WBC world title, that’s what I’ve been dreaming of, that’s what I’ve been working hard towards for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

Conor Benn beat Regis Prograis in his return to action on Saturday in London.\u00a0Richard Pelham\/Getty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n

“I’ve done what I needed to do in there against Regis Prograis. I had six weeks to prepare for Regis and to get my weight down from 175lbs to 150lbs.<\/p>\n

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“It was an easy 10 rounds. Regis was tough in there, tougher than I expected. He was crafty. He’s a two-time world champion. He’s a good fighter, tricky.”<\/p>\n

It was Benn’s first appearance since splitting with Eddie Hearn to join Zuffa Boxing in an \u00a311.19 million ($15m) deal for the Prograis bout alone and his preparation for Saturday took place against the backdrop of their feud.<\/p>\n

Hearn advised Benn to forget campaigning at welterweight after his shots failed to significantly trouble faded veteran Prograis, a former two-time world champion.<\/p>\n

“Not the best, but he’s a had a lot to deal with and I wish him all the best,” Hearn told Boxing News.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s better up at middleweight. I don’t think he has any power down at that weight. He looked much more effective and stronger up at middleweight.”<\/p>\n

Prograis denied all week that he was injured, but he revealed after the fight that his camp had been affected by hand, eye, jaw and rib issues.<\/p>\n

“I was terrified,” Prograis said. “I didn’t know what was going to hold up. I wanted to pull out this fight so bad. Even today [Saturday], I was thinking about pulling out.<\/p>\n

“But you have to go through it when you’re terrified of something. And I’m so glad I went 10 rounds with Conor, a younger and stronger dude. This is the perfect end to my career.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor Benn has branded Ryan Garcia a “coward” after being called out by the American following his comprehensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-602357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}