{"id":781264,"date":"2026-09-24T16:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781264\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:56:09","slug":"barry-mcguigan-warns-conor-benn-to-avoid-one-comeback-fight-its-the-last-thing-he-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781264\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry McGuigan warns Conor Benn to avoid one comeback fight: “It’s the last thing he needs”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hall of Famer Barry McGuigan has advised Conor Benn<\/a> against moving up to middleweight and jumping straight back into a world title fight.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Destroyer\u2019 suffered a second-round stoppage defeat to Ryan Garcia<\/a> earlier this month, with many questioning whether he deserved to even compete at world level.<\/p>\n

Of course, there was much talk about his struggles at 147lbs but, ultimately, the 29-year-old was thoroughly outclassed by WBC champion Garcia, who displayed considerable advantages in speed and skill.<\/p>\n

Even before the Garcia fight, though, Benn was teasing a move up to middle or super-middleweight, perhaps in an attempt to manufacture a built-in excuse.<\/p>\n

He did, of course, enter two middleweight contests with Chris Eubank Jr last year, yet those were against a faded opponent who seemed hampered by the 10lb rehydration clause in their contract.<\/p>\n

Without such weight stipulations, McGuigan has written in his Mirror column<\/a> that it would be a mistake for Benn to face Denzel Bentley, who has been ordered to defend his world title against mandatory challenger Yoenli Hernandez.<\/p>\n

\u201cBenn is still box office. He can come again. But he has to prove himself. I would caution against jumping straight back in against WBO middleweight champion Denzel Bentley.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the appeal \u2013 an all-British clash for the belt his father once held. But that kind of engagement is the last thing he needs off the back of a devastating loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuigan went on to suggest 154lbs as a possible destination, where Benn should be less depleted while, crucially, not contending with the kind of size disadvantage he would experience at middle or super-middleweight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hall of Famer Barry McGuigan has advised Conor Benn against moving up to middleweight and jumping straight back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781264","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\/781264","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=781264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}