Dana White Cuts Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn Face-Off Short
Dana White cut the Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn face-off short at Thursday’s final press conference in Las Vegas, stepping between the WBC welterweight champion and his challenger before the staredown could become another scramble. The Zuffa Boxing boss had already lived through one near-brawl with this pair. He did not wait for a sequel.
Benn tried to talk him down. “I won’t do nothing,” the challenger said.
White was finished with the pose. “I’m good. You guys are freaking me out,” he said, and the face-off was over.
Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs) had been talking the whole time. Benn (25-1, 14 KOs) put a finger to his lips, smiled, and let White do the separating. Security closed the gap. The champion kept firing anyway.
“Your dad’s lying to you, you know that right?” Garcia said. “Black eyes in sparring? Fcking shtty. Fck you. I’m beating that a*.”
That was their first fight-week staredown after Garcia skipped a Tuesday photo opportunity and left Benn standing with his father, Nigel. Thursday was supposed to be the reset inside T-Mobile Arena, the same building that hosts Saturday’s title fight. It lasted long enough for White to decide he had seen the look he did not like.
He had reason to move early. In July at their launch event in New York, Garcia and Benn left their seats, security poured in, and White had to put hands on the scene himself. He said then that he was getting too old for this sh*t. Four days from the bell, the line had changed. The two of them were freaking him out.
The press conference that led into the staredown had already gone theatrical. Minutes after sitting down, Garcia reached into a bag, peeled a boiled egg, and ate it whole in front of Benn and Nigel. “He has a lot of familiarity with eggs so I thought I’d eat some,” Garcia said, a shot at Benn’s 2022 clomifene cases and the explanation that followed about egg consumption. He added that the egg was dry and could have used honey.
Security later took another egg out of Garcia’s pocket before the fighters were allowed nose to nose. Garcia laughed and said, “You caught me.” Chris Eubank Jr. once slapped Benn across the face with an egg and paid a heavy fine for it. White was not about to let that bit walk onto his stage in Nevada.
Benn stayed colder than the champion wanted. He wore a vest that looked built for a different kind of night and refused to chase every insult. “Just don’t cuddle me in here,” Benn said. “I didn’t come all the way to America for you to cuddle.”
He also tried to close the microphone portion of the week. “All the talking, tweeting, typing and streaming is done,” Benn said. “I’m ready to fight.”
Garcia would not leave the weight alone. Benn has not made a true 147-pound limit since 2022, and the champion said he could see it. “I know you’re not on weight, because I can see it in your eyes,” Garcia said. “You ain’t on weight. Hey, you’re going to hit that bathtub tonight, or the bike.”
Benn told him to worry about himself. “He seems to have enough problems as it is,” Benn said. “I don’t look at him, I just worry about myself and don’t cut corners. We’ll see who makes weight tomorrow.”
The Mexican heritage needle came back too. Garcia said Benn had lit a fire by questioning that side of him, then promised Saturday would answer it. “Come Saturday night when his blood is spilling out his mouth, that will be enough to show him how Mexican I am,” he said. He told Benn that Nigel was lying to him about a knockout and that the son could not even knock out Regis Prograis.
Garcia did, for a moment, admit the circus was the circus. “All this is noise, I’ve done my job and I’m the better fighter,” he said. “This is fun but we know what to do.” Then he stayed on stage after Benn walked, flexing and shouting for the crowd White had just pulled apart.
LATEST NEWS: Ryan Garcia Reveals £50 Million Net Worth and Gambling Regret
Friday’s weigh-in is the next time they have to stand still for the cameras. Saturday is the night White cannot cut short. Garcia makes the first defense of the belt he won from Mario Barrios. Benn takes the first world title shot of his career after the cut he has called the pits of hell.
If Thursday was the warning, the face-off White ended is the version of this fight that still has a referee. The version that does not will start at the opening bell, and nobody in the building will be able to step in because two welterweights are freaking him out.