Long before Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn had a title fight on the calendar, sports commentator Emily Austin asked Garcia what he thought of the British boxer. His answer was pretty straightforward: “He still fights like an amateur in a way.”
Just over nine months later, his opinion hasn’t changed much — only this time, Benn was right there to hear it.
“You’re not at my level. You are borderline a bum,” Garcia told Benn during a Sept. 1 appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. “You are like an athletic amateur, that’s what you are. Like a fancy trash can.”
Garcia then upgraded Benn to a “very fancy trash can” before promising, “I’m gonna take out the trash Sept. 12.”
The trash talk may be louder now, but Austin had already gotten Garcia to spell out exactly how he saw the matchup months before it became real.
During that November appearance on The Emily Austin Show, Benn had just called Garcia out following his win over Chris Eubank Jr., and Austin asked whether he would actually take the fight. Garcia was all for it, telling her Benn’s style was “made for me” and inviting him to “come get it any time he wants.”
He even pictured how it might end, saying he’d love to fight Benn in the U.K. and send the hometown crowd home after watching their guy get “knocked out cold.”
At the time, Garcia was still preparing to challenge Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title. He beat Barrios by unanimous decision in February to claim the belt. Benn, meanwhile, defeated Regis Prograis in April and immediately called for Garcia next.
Austin and Garcia already had some history by the time he joined her show. Her DAZN event debut came during his blockbuster 2024 fight against Devin Haney, and weeks later, she sat down with Garcia for a one-on-one interview in Riyadh.
The timing was especially loaded. Garcia was facing cheating accusations after the Haney bout, and he opened up to Austin about how much the controversy had gotten to him. “I feel a little hurt and just damaged,” he said, while insisting, “I know for a fact that I’m not a cheater.”
Austin has kept building in boxing since, most recently joining Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions broadcast team for its Aug. 21 card, the promotion’s first championship boxing event with TikTok LIVE.
As for Benn, there’s plenty riding on the fight beyond proving Garcia wrong. The 29-year-old son of British boxing legend Nigel Benn will be challenging for a world title for the first time in his career, while making 147 pounds for the first time since 2022.
“It’s hard, it’s brutal,” Benn recently told The Ring of the weight cut. “This is my last fight at 147 and when I win the world title I’ll move on.”
