Ryan Garcia offered no apologies for missing Tuesday’s face-off with Conor Benn, adding it was “funny” to see the British fighter pretending to square off against his dad, Nigel.
Garcia is set to embark on the first defence of his WBC welterweight title against Benn at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
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Earlier in the week, the pair were due to meet at the Mandalay Bay Hotel for a media event, but the American fighter did not show up, with Benn subsequently claiming his opponent had “bottled it”.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Garcia said: “I wasn’t there because I didn’t want to be.
“Look, we have a face-off at the press conference [Thursday], then at the weigh-ins [Friday] and then a final face-off literally in the ring when the refs give you instructions.
“I’ve been doing this for so long. I’ve had fight weeks in Vegas before. I’ve never had to do a face-off on [Tuesday]. So I have a routine to do, and it’s just something I didn’t want to do.”
“It was funny seeing him [Benn] staring at himself.”
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Benn, meanwhile, believes Garcia’s absence let the fans down.
“Ultimately it’s disrespectful to the public because they deserve it,” he said on Wednesday.
“The public deserves us giving you guys the best. This is what we do. This is what we’re here for.”
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Benn comes into this fight as the underdog after stepping up to middleweight to fight Chris Eubank Jr. He lost his first fight against his rival in April 2025, before avenging that loss later that November. He comes into this weekend’s bout after beating Regis Prograis at a 150lbs catchweight in April.
Should Benn make the weight at Friday’s weigh-in, this will be the first time that he has fought at the welterweight limit in over four years, with his last fight at under 147lbs coming against Chris van Heerden in April 2022.
The 29-year-old hit back at those who have doubted his ability to make the weight, but added he felt like he had been “dragged through the pits of hell and had a fight with satan” during his preparations.
“A lot of people said I couldn’t make the weight, watch me do it,” Benn said, adding he went through 15 weeks of dieting before the fight.
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“I’ve done it, and that’s it.”
Benn added that this would be his last fight at 147lbs and is hoping to move up in weight after this to 160 or 168lbs.
Garcia said he didn’t want to hear any excuses from Benn after the fight regarding his weight cut.
“All we can do is go by past experience,” Garcia said. “He cut back down to 150lbs to fight Regis Prograis. We have seen how he bloated up. Now he has an extra three pounds to go. I don’t want to hear any excuses. He doesn’t have a rehydration clause.
“I don’t want to be hearing any crybaby s*** from him. He’s trying to set up a narrative, because when he gets his a** whopped, he’ll say: ‘I was drained’. I’m about to beat his a**, it doesn’t matter how much he weighs.”