Conor Benn Says Next Step Is Time With His Kids
Conor Benn says he does not know what comes next in boxing after Ryan Garcia stopped him in two rounds, and that the only plan right now is time with his children. The 29-year-old posted the message two days after his first world-title fight ended at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Garcia retained the WBC welterweight title on Sept. 12 with a second-round stoppage. A right hand dropped Benn early in the round, and referee Thomas Taylor waved it off at 1:25 after Garcia pinned him on the ropes.
The loss dropped Benn to 25-2 and was the first stoppage defeat of his professional career. It also closed a welterweight chapter he had already framed as temporary, after more than four years away from 147 pounds.
Benn did not announce a retirement, a new opponent, or a return date. He said the question that followed him out of Las Vegas is one he cannot answer yet.
“Everybody keeps asking ‘What’s next for Conor Benn?’ The truth is, I don’t have the answer,” Benn wrote.
He placed the night against the decade that led to it. Benn said the 19-year-old version of himself would not have believed the path he has lived since turning professional.
“If you’d asked the 19 year old version of me whether I thought I’d be standing here ten years later, having lived through everything I have, I’d have told you that you were crazy,” he wrote.
The statement returned to the way he has sold his fights. Benn said the work has always been about giving paying fans a night they remember, not about mapping the next contract while the last one is still raw.
“I train hard. I sacrifice. I’ve given this game 110% every time I’ve stepped through those ropes, I’ve wanted to give people unforgettable nights and entertain,” he wrote. “That’s what this has always been about for me.”
He thanked the crowd that spent money to watch him, including the supporters who traveled to Nevada and those who stayed up late at home. Benn said he has never treated that support as guaranteed, especially when a fight ends the way Saturday did.
“People spend their hard earned money to come and watch guys like us fight. I’ve never taken that for granted,” he wrote. “I’ve always wanted to be a servant of the public and give everything I have when it matters.”
The turn in the post was the cost of that approach. Benn said the people who absorb that cost are not the ones in the arena.
“But giving everything comes at a cost. And the people who have paid that cost more than anyone are my family and my kids,” he wrote.
Benn and his wife, Victoria, have three children: Eli, Idony, and Hart, who was born in July as camp for Garcia was already underway. He said those children have spent their lives sharing him with boxing.
“They’ve sacrificed time with their Dad so I could chase this dream. They’ve had to share me with this sport their entire lives,” Benn wrote.
That is why the immediate answer is not another name at 147 or a rebuild date at middleweight. Benn said the next stretch is at home.
“So when people ask me what’s next for Conor Benn, right now the answer is simple. Time with my kids.”
The photos attached to the post showed that shift in plain terms. One image caught Benn holding the newborn against a gym wall. Another showed the family together on a sofa, the older children nearby while he sat with the baby.
The boxing side of the story is still unfinished. Garcia called for a welterweight unification after the stoppage, and Benn’s own camp had already pointed him back toward a higher weight if the title shot at 147 did not last.
None of that is booked. Benn left Las Vegas without a next fight on the calendar and without a public commitment to stay at welterweight, leave the sport, or start a new camp.
What he did put on the record is the order of the next days. The fans who followed him to Vegas and those who stayed up through the early hours got an explicit thank you.
“Fight fans, thank you. Those who travelled to Vegas, those who stayed up until the early hours,” Benn wrote. “I will never take your support for granted, especially on those nights things don’t go to plan.”
For now, that is the entire update. Conor Benn is not naming an opponent. He is naming his children.