{"id":636668,"date":"2026-06-13T12:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/636668\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T12:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T12:56:12","slug":"shakur-stevenson-sums-up-conor-benns-boxing-ability-ahead-of-potential-ryan-garcia-fight-i-will-say-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/636668\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson sums up Conor Benn’s boxing ability ahead of potential Ryan Garcia fight: “I will say that”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson<\/a> has assessed Conor Benn<\/a>\u2019s boxing ability while insisting that, in reality, the 29-year-old never wanted to fight him as he now looks set to face Ryan Garcia<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n

Benn jumped in the ring shortly after Stevenson unanimously outpointed Teofimo Lopez in January, giving the impression that he genuinely wanted to face the four-division world champion.<\/p>\n

According to Stevenson, though, \u2018The Destroyer\u2019 was never willing to entertain their potential encounter, hence why he is now pursuing a clash with Garcia.<\/p>\n

The pair are expected to collide for Garcia\u2019s WBC welterweight title later this year, depending on how Zuffa Boxing deal with a cease and desist letter sent by Golden Boy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oscar De La Hoya\u2019s promotional outfit allege that Garcia, who is reportedly still under contract, was in no position to enter negotiations without their consent.<\/p>\n

Benn, however, is set to earn an eventual world title shot either way, given that he is the WBC\u2019s mandatory challenger at 147lbs.<\/p>\n

The Ilford man secured and retained this position by scoring back-to-back points victories over Chris Eubank Jr<\/a> and Regis Prograis in November and April, respectively.<\/p>\n

In terms of his credentials at world level, though, Stevenson has told All The Smoke Fight<\/a> that he feels Benn\u2019s commercial influence explains why he is the WBC\u2019s No.1 contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reached out and we said, \u2018Let\u2019s do it\u2019. I heard from people very close to him that that [fight] ain\u2019t what they really want.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a fighter, he\u2019s levels below [me]. But what I will say about Conor Benn is he\u2019s very focused and he is getting better \u2013 he\u2019s not just staying in the same spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Conor Benn is a hell of a businessman \u2013 he\u2019s a low-level fighter making top-tier money. [Regarding the weight difference], you\u2019ve got to realise that Conor Benn\u2019s not no super-big guy. He\u2019s very small.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Garcia ends up locking horns with Benn, this would be his first world title defence since dethroning Mario Barrios with a unanimous decision victory<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson has assessed Conor Benn\u2019s boxing ability while insisting that, in reality, the 29-year-old never wanted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-636668","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\/636668","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=636668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}