Eddie Hearn: “Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn is potentially the biggest fight in boxing”

Eddie Hearn, head of Matchroom Boxing and promoter of British fighter Conor Benn, shared his thoughts on a possible bout between his client and the winner of the fight between WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia.

“He is the mandatory challenger for the winner of that fight. Teofimo will fight Shakur, and possibly the winner will move up to welterweight. Everyone is calling out Conor Benn. But for me, for Conor, for Lee, for Keith — for the whole team — we need to make sure we have the right strategy.

We can only wait in one scenario: if we’re guaranteed the fight with the winner. We won’t know that for a while yet, because the fight (between Garcia and Barrios) hasn’t happened.

Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn is potentially the biggest fight in boxing. We can put 15,000 people in Las Vegas for that fight. But first he has to beat Barrios. I believe he can do it. We have to worry about Conor and only about him. And I don’t want him to sit and wait. He’s already back in the gym. He looks phenomenal. He won’t want to wait until July or August to fight,” Hearn said.

In November, Conor Benn (24-1, 14 KOs) won his rematch against Chris Eubank Jr by unanimous decision.

The fight between Mario Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) and Ryan Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) will take place on 21 February.