LAS VEGAS — Vicente Fernandez's "El Rey" filled T-Mobile Arena as Ryan Garcia made his way to the ring, and the crowd sang along to every word. It's hard to script a more fitting entrance for Mexican Independence Day weekend, arguably the biggest holiday on the boxing calendar, in a sport that has crowned some of its greatest champions on this exact date. Garcia walked out flanked by Marco Antonio Barrera and Rey Mysterio, a Mexican flag over one shoulder and an American flag over the other.
Two rounds later, none of it mattered except the fight itself.
Garcia defended his WBC welterweight title Saturday night, stopping Conor Benn by TKO in the second round. He'd promised to make a statement. He did exactly that.
Zuffa Boxing
Ryan Garcia raises the American and Mexican flags after his second-round TKO win over Conor Benn Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
The two came out throwing with no feeling-out process at all. Garcia's jab found Benn almost immediately, snapping his head back and setting the tone before either fighter had settled into the fight. Benn didn't back off. He walked through it and kept marching forward, eating looping hooks along the way as he tried to get inside where he could work. He got there more than once, too, cracking Garcia with a hard shot to the body that had Garcia peeling away for a moment to reset. It was a wild, high-volume opening round, the kind where both fighters look like they're trying to end the fight, not win rounds, and the crowd was on its feet almost from the opening bell.
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Conor Benn lands a left hand to the body on Ryan Garcia during their WBC welterweight title fight Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Benn came out for the second round throwing the same way, pressing forward and trying to take the fight to Garcia before Garcia could settle in. He walked right into trouble instead. Garcia timed him coming in and clipped him with a short counter that buckled his legs, and Benn's balance never fully came back. Moments later Benn pressed forward again, and Garcia met him with a straight right hand that landed flush and put him on the canvas.
Zuffa Boxing
A hard right hand by Ryan Garcia lands flush on the head of Conor Benn Saturday night in their fight at T-Mobile Arena for the WBC welterweight title
Benn made it up before the count ran out and tried to fight on, but he had nothing left to keep Garcia off him.
Garcia poured on a finishing flurry, and referee Thomas Taylor had seen enough, jumping in to end it at 1:25 of the round.
Zuffa Boxing
Referee Thomas Taylor steps in to stop the fight between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn in the second round Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
That right hand carried extra weight for Garcia. He said afterward that the hand has always been a problem for him, chronically injured for much of his career, but that it's healed well over his last two fights since he had surgery from the same surgeon who operated on Steph Curry. “He did a great job,” Garcia said. “I feel great.”
Garcia improved to 26-2 with his 21st career knockout. In the ring afterward, his hand was raised and his title returned to him as the arena, loud from the moment he walked out, got louder still.
Max Kellerman wasn't finished with him. In the middle of the post-fight interview, Kellerman asked Garcia to stay for one more moment, then called Teofimo Lopez to the ring. Security stepped in to keep Lopez out, but that didn't stop either fighter from getting their point across. Garcia said he'd beat him up right now. There was pushing, there was shoving, and the crowd, already spent from a two-round fight, found another gear. It's a fight boxing fans have wanted for a while, and Saturday's staredown only turned the temperature up.
Garcia wasn't done there, either. In the post-fight press conference, he confirmed he wants to unify against Lopez next, calling it a fight that would be “fun” given the hype the two of them could generate. He also had a message for Benn: learn to be more patient. It was Benn's insistence on trying to force the pace, Garcia said, that opened the door for the finish.
Dana White, sharing the podium with his newly reaffirmed champion, was effusive. He called the card a success from top to bottom and made clear this is only the beginning of what Zuffa Boxing wants to build. White didn't hide how highly he thinks of Garcia either, calling him a great fighter, someone who speaks well, a good-looking kid, and someone who can be the face of boxing. Asked whether Zuffa wants to sign him, White circled back to that same praise rather than giving a direct answer, adding that Golden Boy still has Garcia under contract for one more fight.
White also floated a potential Jai Opetaia-David Benavidez matchup next, after Benavidez showed up ringside and jumped in the ring to face off with Opetaia following his win. His broader vision for Zuffa's boxing cards: stack them top to bottom, the way UFC events do, so fans feel like every ticket is worth the money even before the main event starts.
Zuffa was organized even for media covering the event. The card ran on time, and the production looked the part of a company serious about building something.
One thread lingered, though. Oscar De La Hoya, Garcia's promoter, was not in the building. Asked about it, White didn't dodge the question. “Let me explain something to you,” he said. “I do not like De La Hoya, and De La Hoya does not like me. We would never, I would never disrespect him and say, oh, he shows up here and we treat him like garbage. I would call him on the phone and say, hey, don't show up to this event because we're not going to treat you well. That was not the case. Why he didn't show up, I don't know.”
Garcia, asked the same question, said he wished Oscar could've been there and understood he was supposed to be, but didn't know what happened. “It is what it is,” he said.
Hours later, boxing reporter Dan Rafael offered a different account, reporting that Garcia had originally invited De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to walk him to the ring before switching to Barrera and Mysterio Saturday morning, and that De La Hoya and other Golden Boy staff were denied credentials for the event despite Golden Boy having a fighter on the undercard. De La Hoya reportedly watched the fight from home. The two versions of the story don't line up, and as of now, the gap between them hasn't been explained.
None of that took anything away from what Garcia did in the ring. Two rounds, one violent right hand, and a promise kept on the sport's biggest weekend. If Saturday night proved anything, it's that Garcia isn't just chasing the biggest fights in boxing anymore, he's the one drawing them to him.