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Ryan Garcia has picked up from where he left off last night on social media and has come out swinging against Conor Benn.
The two have traded social insults through the day, and Benn admitted it has surprised him.
“Ryan hasn’t been on my radar,” Benn said. “If he wants it, he can come here. I ain’t no Luke Campbell either, so it’s a fight I’d definitely take next. I’d take it straightaway.”
Benn had started off by crediting Haney with clambering off the floor three times to lose on the cards, and said he had picked Garcia to win. Benn also left an open invitation saying: “I will fight any of these guys.”
Garcia did not take the challenge lightly, and responded with: “Let’s run it in London at the O2. I will fracture your spleen [sic] and then eat it.”
Benn then mentioned he would “smash Garcia’s teeth down his neck”, to which Garcia replied: “You know I’m about the business but you can’t even fight in your own country wtf?”
That was in reference to Benn’s ongoing dispute with the British Boxing Board of Control and UKAD after a pair of failed tests for PEDs almost two years ago. Benn has declared his innocence since, in a protracted fall out that has seen him continue his career, firstly in Florida and then in Las Vegas.
Benn is now 23-0 (14 KOs) following those victories on the road over Rodolfo Orozco and Peter Dobson. He is also a welterweight, who has been boxing at junior middleweight while Garcia, now 25-1 (20 KOs), fought last night having weighed more than 143lbs for his fight with Haney, which had been set at the 140lbs super lightweight limit.
Benn has now been called out by several top Americans and he is keen for a significant bout, and would happily face Garcia.
The 27-year-old Englishman continued: “These fights weren’t on the landscape for me, but since they’re all moving up to 147, Haney mentioned my name, Gervonta Davis mentioned my name, [Adrien] Broner mentioned my name, another American has mentioned my name, and when it comes to putting pen to paper, they don’t want it.”
Then, while Garcia brought up fighting at the O2 Arena in London, Benn said he was happy to pack his bags and head back to America.
“Can either do it in Vegas or here,” Benn told BoxingScene. “The Board don’t want me over here at the moment so let’s get it on over there.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a Board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and The Ring of Brotherhood. He is a former boxing broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular Boxing Life Stories podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and the author of five boxing books, including Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing, Warrior: A Champion’s Search For His Identity and The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxings’ Wastelands.