{"id":627424,"date":"2026-06-08T11:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627424\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T11:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:32:08","slug":"johnny-nelson-sums-up-conor-benns-chances-of-beating-ryan-garcia-to-become-world-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627424\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Nelson sums up Conor Benn’s chances of beating Ryan Garcia to become world champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnny Nelson has highlighted how Conor Benn\u2019s improvements could make for a \u201csurprising\u201d encounter with Ryan Garcia later this year.<\/p>\n

The pair are expected to collide in Las Vegas for Garcia\u2019s WBC strap, with the welterweight champion having named September 12 as a possible date.<\/p>\n

\u2018King Ry\u2019 claimed his world title in February, dethroning Mario Barrios with a unanimous decision victory after flooring his man in the opening round.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, Garcia had suffered a points defeat to Rolando Romero<\/a> after overcoming a second-round knockdown, which came in May 2025 following his year-long doping ban.<\/p>\n

This penalty was handed to the American after he tested positive for banned substance ostarine, which caused his majority decision victory over Devin Haney to be overturned to a no-contest.<\/p>\n

Benn, meanwhile, failed two doping tests, both returning findings of clomifine, and was subsequently removed from his showdown with Chris Eubank Jr in 2022.<\/p>\n

The Brit would eventually face his domestic rival in April 2025, though, losing a unanimous decision before winning their middleweight rematch by the same margin last November.<\/p>\n

Benn then maintained his No.1 contender status with the WBC, who have continued to rank him at welterweight, by outpointing Regis Prograis at a catchweight<\/a> of 150lbs this past April.<\/p>\n

But while acknowledging the 29-year-old as a clear underdog, former world champion Nelson told Boxing News that he nonetheless gives Benn a chance against Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to lean towards Ryan Garcia, but you can\u2019t write Conor Benn off. Conor Benn is forever and constantly surprising many of us, with the decision making, with where he\u2019s got in his career and what he\u2019s done in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo do not write him off, because Conor Benn has forever been improving as a fighter. And Ryan Garcia, we know what he\u2019s about: He\u2019s fast as hell and we know he\u2019s a dangerous cookie, but we also know Conor Benn is a pro that thinks, \u2018I\u2019m going to put my heart and soul into this, and I\u2019m going to prove all of you wrong\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Benn proved the majority of people wrong in his rematch with Eubank, yet it is difficult to see where else in his career he pulled off a sizable upset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Nelson has highlighted how Conor Benn\u2019s improvements could make for a \u201csurprising\u201d encounter with Ryan Garcia later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-627424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}