Ryan Garcia’s career has taken more twists and turns than a soap opera in recent years, but “King Ry” arrives in Las Vegas feeling back to his best, and with the WBC welterweight championship belt around his waist. After a turbulent few years, he plans on asserting his dominance on the welterweight division by facing big name after big name. His next test will see him face off against Conor Benn, whose memorable wars at 160 pounds with Chris Eubank Jr. produced two of British boxing’s biggest moments of recent years.  This is the first time Garcia will defend a title, and he plans on using the occasion as a springboard to launch him into a succession of big-money unification bouts further down the line.

 

His quest for gold started back in the amateurs, where his dream was to capture an Olympic gold medal for the United States. The timing just didn’t work out for him, and he made the difficult decision to turn pro rather than wait for the Olympic cycle to come back around. “I wasn't eligible to go to the Olympics because I was 17, so it was either: wait four more years in the amateurs and wear no headgear and get paid nothing, or start my professional journey,” he explained.  “That was my dream. I wanted to win a gold medal more than anything, that's why the Luke Campbell victory is so special to me. I know people don't see it, but he was an Olympic champion.”

 

That victory over Campbell saw Garcia capture an interim belt at lightweight. Now a reigning welterweight champion, Garcia is ready to put his title on the line against Benn, who is crossing the pond with his sights set on his first world championship. Garcia knows Benn will bring his relentless brand of pressure fighting to the matchup on Saturday night, but Garcia said he’s ready to put on a show and deliver an emphatic victory. “I'm gonna put a stamp on this fight. This fight's not gonna be close,” he said. “I understand everybody's all, ‘Oh, Benn this and that,’ but this fight is not going over five [rounds]. It’s five and below. I’d be sad if I don’t knock him out in five and below.”

 

Benn took aim at Garcia during the bout’s launch press conference and criticized him for going down to one knee and not being able to continue in a loss against Gervonta Davis. Garcia said that he fought that bout severely dehydrated, and warned Benn that now, in top shape, he’ll punish the Brit if he steps close enough to land a body shot on Saturday night. “He just doesn't know the situation, and he doesn't know what I had to go through. Nobody knows that,” explained Garcia. “That's dangerous levels of dehydration I was at, and they didn't let me gain weight. That's crazy… He knows a little bit of what I felt, but here's the thing: if he wants to bring that type of fight right now, I know for a fact he probably will get knocked out quick.”

 

While Garcia said there were mitigating circumstances around his defeat to Davis, his loss to Rolly Romero was more a case of self-inflicted punishment as his excesses away from the ring came back to haunt him in his most recent loss. “For me, you know, I learned a valuable lesson,” he admitted. “Somehow, sooner or later, I had to pay for my sins, and when I say that, I mean my sins after the [Tank Davis] fight. Destroying my body, not giving a f***, doing whatever I wanted to do, not acting like a professional athlete.”

 

Now Garcia is back in a better place as he prepares to face Benn in a huge title defense at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night. And in Benn, he feels he’s up against a fighter whose style is tailor-made for his own. “I’m just too skilled for him,” he stated. “This guy, he has a style that just fits perfect for me. He attacks – I don’t have to go looking for him. He doesn’t know how to fight any other way. And if he does fight any other way, I win easily… If he does, we’re getting to it. There’s no other way. I’m in this. I’m fully equipped, fully in shape. I have no issues. I could go 15-20 rounds. I’m ready.”

 

Garcia has always had plenty of confidence, but his title-winning performance against Mario Barrios in his most recent outing has given him even more cause for bullishness. Barrios provided stubborn resistance, and while Garcia wasn’t able to get him out of there early, he used a combination of his fight IQ and his pure boxing talent to box his way to a landslide decision victory. “Barrios didn't go away. Barrios tried every second of the fight. He couldn't keep up my speed. He was always a second behind, two seconds behind,” he explained. “Same thing is going to be for Conor, except Conor's going to be there for me. Mario Barrios is tall and lengthy. He's a tree, and he didn't really want to engage, and would try to counter me like Rolly. They were trying to follow that game plan. ‘When Ryan throws a left hook, throw your left hook,’ and he was too slow… When I'm on point, it's like ‘beep, beep, beep, beep,’ and I was hitting him with four-punch combinations, five-punch combinations, two-punch combinations. I was changing it up, going to his body, going up top, dropped him with the right hand, not just the left hook. I didn't even really throw the left hook in the fight, to be honest. I was not even loading up with it. I told everybody it was gonna be a masterclass. I'm gonna beat him every single round, and I did that.”

 

Garcia said that blend of blurring hand speed and smart energy management will prove Benn’s undoing on Saturday night. He acknowledged the Englishman’s fighting spirit as witnessed in his two fights with Eubank Jr. but he said sometimes, a fighter can be too brave for their own good and hopes Benn can be saved from himself as the fight unfolds. “I really, really, truly hope he walks out of this fight OK because he has a big heart, and he's gonna keep coming,” he said.  “So I really do hope his dad is prepared to just throw that towel in – just throw it because it can only get worse… You can have all that heart, all that ‘Macho Camacho’ s***, but honestly, the body will break down before you do, and you don't want it to break down before you do. Some dangerous s*** could happen there. And I have my killer instinct even more now. [Against] Barrios, I didn't really have it. I was still sharpening my tools, and all right, I'm just gonna beat him. Like I said to myself, ‘Would he ever beat me in the amateurs? No,’ so I more boxed him on a point system. If you watch my fight, I was like, ‘bing, bing, bing.’ This one's even more of a killer. Like, I'm hurting people, and I'm about to hurt him. I'm back to that, and [I’m] sharp.”

 

Garcia seems determined not just to win, but to do so in emphatic fashion as he looks to embark on a run of fights that he hopes will see him collect all of the welterweight championship belts on offer. “Now that that's clear, I'm unifying,” he said. “I need that Teofimo [Lopez fight]. I need that. Father-versus-father, me versus Teofimo. That’s the one guy I never got to fight in the amateurs, and I know that dad has always talked down on me, saying I have no style, I'm not good. He thinks the worst of me… I cannot wait to put an ass-whooping on. That's why I really don't want to lose. I really need that fight. I'm whooping the s*** out of Conor Benn, training my ass off because I don't want to give him the opportunity to get what I want. I need that in every way.”

 

And he said that Benn forms the first leg of a hat-trick of massive three-fight series he hopes to complete over the course of the next couple of years as he looks to claim his throne as the biggest star in boxing. Those three fights? Conor Benn, Teofimo Lopez, and a rematch with Devin Haney. “That’s how I want it. Bing, bow, boom!” he said. “This is a fighter you’re dealing with. I need it all.”