Ryan Garcia targets Conor Benn

Ryan Garcia used a media appearance in Egypt on May 23 to renew his pursuit of Conor Benn, saying he wants the British boxer next and describing the matchup as personal. Garcia made the remarks while in the orbit of Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight title event against Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza, according to boxing coverage published the same day. Garcia has not fought since his win over Devin Haney, and the Benn comments shifted attention back to his next move. Reports this week tied the latest exchange to an earlier confrontation Garcia says took place at an awards show. ### What did Garcia say in Egypt? Ryan Garcia said on May 23 that he intends to fight Benn and “put a whooping” on him, according to accounts carried by boxing outlets and syndicated reports. Egypt was the setting because Garcia was among the boxing figures attending the Usyk-Verhoeven event, a crossover heavyweight show staged on May 23 near the Pyramids of Giza. Yahoo Sports and USA Today both placed Garcia in the Egypt fight-week scene around that event. (msn.com) ### Why is Garcia calling it personal? Garcia said earlier this week that the proposed Benn fight is “personal” because of an encounter at an awards show two years ago. In reports from May 19, Garcia said Benn grabbed him by the collar in front of his wife, and that he had carried the grievance since then. (sports.yahoo.com) Conor Benn was the opponent Garcia named on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on May 18, when he first publicly identified Benn as the target. Yahoo Sports and Sports Illustrated both reported that appearance and Garcia’s description of the bout as personal. ### Has the fight actually been announced? (si.com) Ryan Garcia has said in multiple interviews that a fight with Benn is set for September 12 in Las Vegas. DAZN, The Independent and other boxing outlets reported those comments during the week of May 19. No sanctioning body or promoter announcement was surfaced in the reporting reviewed here, and at least one USA Today report said there were reasons for skepticism despite Garcia’s public claim. (si.com) That leaves Garcia’s own statements as the clearest public marker of where talks stand. (dazn.com) ### Where does Devin Haney fit into this? BoxingNews’ report on Garcia’s latest Benn comments said Garcia had not fought since his win over Devin Haney. That framing has been repeated in follow-up coverage around the Benn storyline. Devin Haney was also in Egypt for the Usyk-Verhoeven event, according to USA Today, placing both Garcia and Haney in the same high-profile boxing setting even as Garcia publicly turned his attention toward Benn. (usatoday.com) ### Why did this resurface during Usyk-Verhoeven week? (msn.com) May 23 brought a concentration of boxing media in Egypt because Oleksandr Usyk fought Rico Verhoeven in a headline event at Giza. Garcia’s comments landed in that media window, giving fresh circulation to a matchup he had already raised on U.S. television days earlier. (sports.yahoo.com) The next concrete date attached to the story is September 12 in Las Vegas, the timetable Garcia has repeatedly cited for a Benn fight. Until promoters or sanctioning bodies publish formal bout details, Garcia and Benn remain the named participants attached to that proposed next step. (dazn.com) (sports.yahoo.com)