Conor Benn will challenge Ryan Garcia for the WBC world welterweight title on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a fight billed as a meeting of two of boxing's most divisive characters.
Garcia, the American champion, is a solid odds-on favourite with bookmakers on the Las Vegas Strip, but many of the American and Mexican fans who have travelled for the fight know little about Benn beyond the fact that he is the son of former two-weight world champion Nigel Benn, nicknamed "The Dark Destroyer."
Benn struggled to beat lesser-known opponents in his two previous fights in the United States, and back home only his pair of bouts with fellow Briton Chris Eubank Jr have drawn wide attention. What fans on both sides of the border are more likely to know is that Benn twice tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and fought a protracted legal battle to clear his name, a saga that kept him out of the ring for months. Garcia has also served a suspension after a positive test of his own.
Weigh-in and fight purse
Benn made weight with room to spare on Friday morning, scaling 146lbs, a full pound under the division's 147lbs limit and just half a pound heavier than Garcia. He had spent five weeks cutting down from middleweight, a process he described as "five weeks in hell," but appeared lean and muscular rather than drained. Garcia, who is taller and of partly Mexican heritage, looked more physically at home at the weight, though Benn did not appear stressed by the cut.
The fight is expected to be a lucrative one for Benn, with some reports putting his purse at $10million, paid by UFC boss Dana White as part of his push into boxing promotion. To take the deal, Benn walked away from his long-time promoter Eddie Hearn, who had backed him publicly through his doping ban and loaned him around half a million pounds to help sustain his lifestyle during the crisis.
Benn rejected the idea that money was his only motivation. "I'm doing this because I relish challenges. Have always wanted to strap on the same green WBC belt my dad was so proud to wear. To start getting the world titles that will leave a legacy for my kids. And to prove wrong everyone who doesn't give me a chance of winning. That puts all the pressure on him, not me," he said.
Eubank Jr rivalry and past controversies
Eubank Jr, whose father Chris Eubank Sr fought a famous rivalry with Nigel Benn in the 1990s, inflicted the only defeat of Conor Benn's career. Benn avenged the loss in a rematch held under contentious terms, after a contract clause prevented Eubank from rehydrating fully once he had cut to the agreed catchweight, leaving him drained for the second fight.
Both fighters have faced criticism for their conduct outside the ring. Garcia, who has cultivated a bad-boy, rock-star image, once trashed a five-star hotel room and has needed his family's support in dealing with mental health struggles that were worsened by drugs and alcohol. Benn initially claimed his failed drug tests were the result of eating large quantities of eggs, before launching his legal challenge.
What decides Saturday's fight
Garcia, at 28 a year younger than Benn, brings far more experience at world championship level and genuine one-punch knockout power. Benn's approach relies on the relentless volume of his work rate, but Garcia is regarded as one of the best counterpunchers in the sport, a style that could suit him well against a fighter who comes forward non-stop.
Garcia remains the solid odds-on favourite with bookmakers in Las Vegas. But the outcome may hinge on which version of him turns up: if it is the complacent, narcissistic fighter whose arrogance has cost him big fights before, an upset by Benn is not out of the question. If Garcia arrives fully focused, the concern shifts instead to Benn's safety in the ring.
