Ryan Garcia retained his WBC world title after flooring Conor Benn heavily before forcing a stoppage victory in the second round.
Garcia successfully defended the WBC welterweight championship with a ruthless display of speed, power and precision, ending Benn’s world title dream early in their Las Vegas showdown.
Benn was stepping up to a new level in the first world title fight of his career as the UK star attempted to secure what would have been one of British boxing’s biggest overseas upsets.
Garcia, though, proved too much. Benn was fighting below the welterweight limit for the first time in over four years.
Last year, after his provisional suspension for an anti-doping violation was lifted, Benn boxed family rival Chris Eubank Jr twice at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Both of those bouts were up at middleweight, with Benn avenging his loss in the first contest when he dropped and outscored Eubank in the second.
He began moving back down to welterweight after that, meeting Regis Prograis in a catchweight bout, also at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s comeback earlier this year.
He completed the challenge of boiling back down in weight but couldn’t match Garcia.
In his career Garcia has come up from lighter divisions, but has mixed in exalted company. He recorded a stunning win over Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell and lost to Gervonta Davis at lightweight.
He dominated Devin Haney, although he came in over the super-lightweight limit for that fight. That result was changed to a no contest after Garcia failed a drug test.
After a year-long ban, he lost to Rolando Romero in a Times Square event before getting a shot at the WBC champion Mario Barrios. Garcia dropped Barrios en route to winning a decision and claiming the belt.
Benn was installed as his mandatory challenger but Garcia showed his calibre early on the fight. At the outset he shook up the Briton with a quick left hook.
At the end of the first round Garcia unleashed hurtful back hands, while Benn tried to claw back at him with his right.
In the second round Garcia ripped his right across to drop Benn heavily. The Briton rose unsteadily. He needed to clinch to try to clear his head, but the American pinned him on the end of savage punches.
Garcia tore into him, smashing him into the ropes. He hurt Benn to the body and then battered him round the head, his sheer speed clearly apparent. The referee then stepped between them to end it at 1:25 of the second round.
“I kind of figured he would just come at me crazy,” Garcia said.
“Second round, I said I’m tired of him coming forward; I’m going stand my ground a little bit … and then he got caught with a hellacious one.” –Skysports.com
You can now read the *Ghanaian Times* and *The Spectator* newspapers digitally on [TimesNewsPlus](https://timesnewsplus.com/newspapers).
Follow our WhatsApp Channel now! https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q
