{"id":724285,"date":"2026-08-02T11:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724285\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T11:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:05:10","slug":"former-undisputed-champion-says-conor-benn-is-not-even-british-level-ahead-of-garcia-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724285\/","title":{"rendered":"Former undisputed champion says Conor Benn is not even British level ahead of Garcia title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conor Benn<\/a> has been accused of having done very little to deserve his WBC title shot against Ryan Garcia, who many feel is a level or two above the Brit.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the two welterweights will collide for Garcia\u2019s world title on September 12, headlining an event at Las Vegas\u2019 T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n

The champion claimed his strap by dethroning Mario Barrios<\/a>, who many considered one of the sport\u2019s weaker titleholders, with a unanimous decision victory in February.<\/p>\n

This was the first time Garcia felt what it was like to have his hand raised since April 2024, when he initially claimed a majority decision triumph over Devin Haney, only for the result to be ruled a no-contest after he tested positive for banned substance ostarine.<\/p>\n

Benn, too, has previously failed two doping tests \u2013 both for clomifene in October 2022 \u2013 but has since found himself in two high-profile middleweight encounters with Chris Eubank Jr.<\/p>\n

Their first fight, in April 2025, saw him suffer a unanimous decision defeat, before exacting his revenge by the same verdict in their November rematch.<\/p>\n

Most recently, though, the 29-year-old outpointed a faded and since-retired Regis Prograis<\/a> in April, emerging victorious at a catchweight of 150lbs.<\/p>\n

Based on that performance, former undisputed super-lightweight champion Josh Taylor has told Fight Your Corner<\/a> that he struggles to see Benn defeating British champion Conah Walker, let alone Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah [I stand by that he\u2019s not British level.] I think there\u2019s guys in the UK that would beat Conor Benn. I think Conah Walker would beat him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that second Eubank fight, I thought [Benn] was very good. But then I watched him against Prograis and thought he was terrible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think he\u2019s on [Garcia\u2019s] level. I don\u2019t think he merits that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is Benn yet to face a world-class fighter in his prime but, crucially, \u2018The Destroyer\u2019 has not fought at 147lbs since his second-round finish over Chris van Heerden in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor Benn has been accused of having done very little to deserve his WBC title shot against Ryan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-724285","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\/724285","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=724285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}