Benn In The Big Apple: Stalking A Potential Mega-Fight With The Elusive Ryan Garcia

Conor Benn arrived in New York for what appears to be a strategic scouting mission for Friday’s Fatal Fury: City of Wolves event at Times Square. Benn (23-1, 14 KOs) is interested in fighting Ryan Garcia in a blockbuster-level mega-millions fight.

Conor wants to be seen by the cameras in this event on DAZN PPV. Being present on Friday will give Benn a lot of visibility without him having to fight. It’s all strategic.

Target: Ryan Garcia

The welterweight Benn, 28, was competitive in his loss to the British-level middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. last Saturday night. Conor is likely hoping to take that performance and transmute it into a goldmine fight against Ryan Garcia.

It doesn’t matter that Benn would be coming off a defeat. The fact that he was competitive against a middleweight, albeit an aging, underachieving one that had never won a world title during his long career.

Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs) has other plans for his next fight that don’t involve Benn. If Kingry is victorious against Rolly Romero (16-2, 13 KOs), he’ll likely fight Devin Haney in a rematch in October if he wins his undercard fight against Jose Ramirez on Friday night. There’s a lot of fan interest in a Garcia-Haney rematch.

Rematch Factor

Benn has a rematch clause with Eubank Jr. (35-3, 25 KOs), and those two will surely fight later this year for big money. For Conor to have any shot at getting a fight against Ryan Garcia in the near future, he’s going to have to either win or make it razor-close again.

Losing a second time to Eubank Jr, even if it’s close, is going to put Benn in a bad position to get a fight against Ryan in 2026. Benn would have to come back down to 147 and beat one or two notable contenders in the division to rebuild.

Unfortunately, there’s a lack of contenders that Conor could fight that would increase his popularity after a second loss to Eubank Jr. He would need to take on one of the champions, like Brian Norman Jr. or Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis to rebuild.

There’s no chance that Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn would stick him in with either of those welterweight champions coming off a second defeat to Eubank Jr. Hearn knows that Benn would likely be knocked out by Norman Jr. and Boots. His chances of ever getting a fight against Ryan Garcia would be permanently dashed.

Conor Benn has arrived in New York for the historic Times Square show, and has been greeted by fans following his clash with Chris Eubank Jr.

Buy @FATALFURY_PR: City of the Wolves out now and watch The Ring’s card LIVE on DAZN this Friday. pic.twitter.com/0MOWCyHupV

— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) May 1, 2025