{"id":774828,"date":"2026-09-18T15:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T15:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774828\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T15:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T15:20:14","slug":"former-olympic-gold-medallist-willing-to-come-out-of-retirement-to-face-conor-benn-that-excites-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774828\/","title":{"rendered":"Former olympic gold medallist willing to come out of retirement to face Conor Benn: “That excites me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Olympic champion has opened the door to a potential clash with Conor Benn<\/a>, who many feel was exposed during his world title challenge against Ryan Garcia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair collided at Las Vegas\u2019 T-Mobile Arena last weekend, with Garcia scoring a second-round finish to retain his WBC welterweight title.<\/p>\n

Immediately, the gulf in speed and class became apparent as Benn seemed way out of his depth in what was, in truth, a complete and utter mismatch.<\/p>\n

Throughout the build-up, much was made over the fact that he had not fought at 147lbs since 2022<\/a>, back when \u2018The Destroyer\u2019 tested positive for banned substance clomifene.<\/p>\n

Irrespective of his weight-making struggles, though, Benn was handily beaten<\/a>, leaving many to doubt whether he belongs at world level.<\/p>\n

But while he may never reach the pinnacle of his sport, the 29-year-old can nonetheless feature in marketable fights under Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing banner.<\/p>\n

Even before losing to Garcia, Benn expressed his desire to campaign at middle or super-middleweight, where a trilogy with Chris Eubank Jr could become realistic.<\/p>\n

As for alternative opponents, Olympic gold medallist Luke Campbell has told Seconds Out<\/a> that he would gladly come out of retirement and face Benn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s struggling for opponents, I might make a comeback. That\u2019s probably one fight that would excite me and get the buzz back on.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his fighting career, Campbell secured two world title shots but lost on points to Jorge Linares and Vasyl Lomachenko, before suffering a seventh-round stoppage defeat to Garcia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Olympic champion has opened the door to a potential clash with Conor Benn, who many feel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-774828","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\/774828","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=774828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}