On Wednesday, Zuffa Boxing announced that Conor Benn would face Ryan Garcia on Saturday, September 12th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Garcia will be defending his WBC World Welterweight Championship.
The show will be promoted by The Ring Magazine and co-promoted by Zuffa Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions.
The news answers several questions of the Zuffa Boxing and whether it would work with other promotions. We know that The Ring and Zuffa are fine working together as it is Turki Alalshikh wish to have many of its fighters on Zuffa Boxing cards. But, it is the Golden Boy-Zuffa Boxing relationship that is surprising. Notably because Oscar de la Hoya, whose company represents Garcia, has been taking shots at Dana White on social media. White has shot back at the former gold medalist making fun of his alleged financial situation.
White signed Benn this past spring to a huge one fight deal and then quickly re-signed him to a longer one. This is the big fight in the welterweight division. Zuffa Boxing recently signed Shakur Stevenson which could see him make a jump up in weight class.
Even if that happens, this fight helps foster the belief that Zuffa Boxing will work with other promotions rather than insulate itself from others. It’s still unclear if they will recognize other belts, but at least the inter-promotion shows some semblance of normalcy in boxing.
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