The wait is over. After months of trash talk, Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn are finally set to fight.
Garcia vs. Benn is official and set to go down Sept. 12 – Mexican Independece Day weekend – at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Golden Boy and Zuffa Boxing, who are co-promoting the event, announced the news Wednesday.
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Garcia, who’s signed with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy, will look to make it 2-0 this 2026. The Mexican-American fighter fought in February when he won the WBC welterweight title in a unanimous decision over veteran Mario Barrios. That was his first bout since suffering an upset loss to Rolly Romero the year prior.
Benn, who will fight for the second time since signing with Zuffa, looks to continue to build momentum after suffering his first pro loss to Chris Eubank Jr. in 2025. Benn avenged the loss to Eubank last November and then defeated Regis Prigrais in a unanimous decision in April.
This will be the first event UFC CEO Dana White and De La Hoya will be involved as co-promoters together. The two have a longstanding public feud, often taking shots at each other in the media throughout the years. White and De La Hoya’s relationship first took a sharp left turn when De La Hoya criticized White’s co-promotion of the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather cross-over boxing match in 2017.
Earlier this month, De La Hoya voiced a strong opinion against Garcia vs. Benn happening.
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“Lots of fake news going around,” De La Hoya said on July 2. “So people are posting about the Ryan Garcia fight and the Conor Benn fight in Las Vegas, September 12th, but I have yet to be approached about making this fight. We signed a two-fight deal for Ryan with the Saudis last year. The first fight was with Barrios, and apparently the Saudis have chosen Conor Benn to be Ryan’s next opponent.
“Nobody’s asking for this fight. The fans definitely are not wanting this fight, and if it were up to me, I would’ve picked Devin Haney for the rematch. That’s a much bigger fight. But because Turki owns Zuffa and wants to help them out, he picked Conor Benn. That’s fine. I mean, look, you can’t just make fights without Golden Boy and DAZN. I know Paramount wants the Ryan fight on their network because they’re regular Zuffa fights do a few thousand views. I can’t imagine how disappointed Paramount is, but there are contracts in place.”
TKO, which owns Zuffa Boxing and UFC, will be going head to head with itself as Garcia vs. Ben happens the same night as Noche UFC, the promotion’s annual event that celebrates Mexican Independence. This year’s Noche UFC goes down Sept. 12 in Glendale, Ariz.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn set for Mexican Independence Day weekend
