Don\u2019t expect Conor Benn to have a long title reign should he beat Ryan Garcia on Saturday to become the WBC welterweight champion.<\/p>\n
Ahead of one of the most anticipated boxing matches in 2026, Benn admitted that his trip down to 147 pounds is a one-and-done for him. Benn always wanted the chance to win a 147-pound title and so he\u2019s effectively torturing himself to make that weight for his fight against Garcia but no matter the outcome, don\u2019t expect to see him at that weight again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my last fight at 147,\u201d Benn said during media day on Wednesdya. \u201cI feel unbelievable at 160. I\u2019ve always wanted to win a world title at 147. I wouldn\u2019t have made it for any other fight apart from fighting for the world title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank Nick [Khan], thank Dana [White], thank Zuffa for getting me this world title shot. It\u2019s my job to deliver now and then move up to 160, 168.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Benn has fought across multiple weight classes during his career, the 29-year-old Brit is smart enough to recognize that killing himself to get down to 147 pounds will eventually backfire in the ring.<\/p>\n
But for the chance to capture a world championship and take out a huge name like Garcia, it\u2019s a risk that Benn is willing to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it\u2019s a gamble, but isn\u2019t that what makes it fun?\u201d Benn said. \u201cThe risk. The challenge. It\u2019s exciting. A lot of people said I couldn\u2019t make the weight. Watch me do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been four and a half years since I made it and it does feel like I\u2019ve been through the pits of hell and had a fight with Satan and God brought me back to life. That\u2019s how it feels making this weight. But ultimately I\u2019ve done it and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Benn is successful in defeating Garcia on Saturday, he\u2019ll certainly have plenty of opportunities awaiting him against any number of top name opponents. To Benn, that\u2019s exactly why he\u2019s will to put himself through hell to get down to 147 pounds because it\u2019s going to allow him to join the short list of the best boxers in the world regardless of weight class.<\/p>\n
There was no way Benn was going to pass on that opportunity no matter how much it might hurt over the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout 15 weeks of dieting,\u201d Benn revealed when asked how long it takes him to get to 147 pounds. \u201cI was walking around 185 pounds for the [Chris] Eubanks\u2019 fight. I was solid. I felt good. I felt strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut an opportunity like this comes up and you have the magnitude of fighting for the world title in Vegas headlining? What am I going to do? Say no?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t expect Conor Benn to have a long title reign should he beat Ryan Garcia on Saturday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,1347,85],"class_list":["post-886278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-latest-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886278","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=886278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}