Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn dropped last night (Saturday, September 12, 2026) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada for King Ry’s WBC lightweight belt, his first attempt to defend the title.
Unfortunately for fight fans, it didn’t last long.
Benn came out as the aggressor from the jump and decided to be the one to dictate the pace of the fight. He had Garcia on his heels for a while but it didn’t faze Garcia at all as he likes to counter punch. And he did it perfectly, mowing down “The Destroyer” with some left hooks to open the round.
It was the same in the second round as Benn looked to be the aggressor early on but ate a nice uppercut that caught his attention. After disappearing with a patented left hook, Garcia quickly landed a massive right hand that clipped Benn’s chin and dropped him like a bag of cement.
Benn was able to answer the 10, but Garcia wasted little time going for the kill and began unloading one shot after another. To his credit, Benn was able to take some of them off and avoid some, but the onslaught from “King Ry” was just too much and eventually the referee on duty stepped in to end the punishment.
With the win, Garcia not only earned his first title defense, but put the rest of the division on notice that he doesn’t rely solely on the left hook, showing off his all-around striking offense that will give his foes more of a game plan in the future.
Check out some of the highlights below:
During his post-fight speech, Garcia called out the WBC featherweight titleholder, Teofimo Lopezfor his next challenge. While Teo was on his way around, security apparently didn’t have it, which ended up causing a semi-chaotic scene as Lopez decided to engage in a confrontation.
But it was not to be; however, fight fans now have a big fight ahead of them.