Teddy Atlas previews potential Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn fight

Teddy Atlas discusses the potential Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn showdown

WBC welterweight world champion Ryan Garcia and WBC #1 Conor Benn are on a collision course for a Vegas fight in the summer.

Both boxers are coming off victories, "KingRy" dropped and decisioned Mario Barrios to win the WBC crown, and "The Destroyer" defeated his archenemy Chris Eubank Jr. in their rematch.

69-year-old former trainer Teddy Atlas told Hard Rock Bet and revealed there are question marks for both Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn.

"Well, I think it’s going to make money. Is that a good place to start? I think that if we’re going to be honest in these conversations, it’s not always about what we want it to be about. It’s not always about what’s the most competitive fight, what’s the most attractive fight for the audience, for the sport. What’s the most beneficial matchup for the audience and the sport.

"It’s not always about that—it’s about what can make money. And this can make money.

"Coming off, obviously, the Eubank fights, which put him at a very, very high level of attraction, a high level of just being known. And Garcia, of course, has been at that high level of people being aware of him.

"By being aware of him, he’s an attraction, and he’s an attraction for good and bad. He’s an attraction because of the crazy place that he went to before his fight against Devin Haney. Craziness that was attached to the Devin Haney promotion and fight, and of course what happened in that fight, and then Garcia coming back and losing and looking anything but great when he came back and lost that fight to Rolly.

"With Benn, of course, winning the second fight. both of those fights were great fights, but then winning the second fight with Eubank. They both put themselves in a position where it’s an attraction for a promoter, where they both can get paid because of the attention they’ve both garnered in the last year or two.

"I think as far as the athletic side of it, the competitive side of it, the boxing side of it, there are a lot of questions about both of them, but more about Garcia. He looked good in his last fight, but it was against an ageing fighter. It was against a guy who is close to 40.

"Which is the real Garcia? Is it the one where we’ve seen spurts of that explosiveness, we’ve seen the talk, we’ve seen the athleticism, the quick hands, the power? Of course, we understand the attraction that he is because of the attention that he has garnered. But are we going to get Garcia at his explosive best, or are we going to get the guy who had that night against Romero? Is he past that? Or was it just that he was in there with an ageing guy? So, there are question marks about that.

"With Conor Benn, people are going to knock his fight against Regis Prograis. I’m not knocking it. I thought there was a lot of good to take away from that. He was coming off two incredibly emotional fights. There had to be a little bit of a let down. He was dropping back down in weight, which is a tricky thing, to lose that muscle that he had put on for Eubank and then drop down.

"So, he was dealing with that. He was dealing with a guy that he was supposed to go knock out, because Regis Prograis, beyond being a game, game guy, he’s never been stopped, a two-time world champion, but his legs were old.

"I mean, he showed that in his fight before this against JoJo Diaz, right? He looked like a guy that had no legs anymore, that wasn’t able to handle taking a punch anymore, and he got hurt early with Benn, but then he survived.

"He’s a two-time experienced world champion; former champion and he survived. All the heart in the world, Prograis survived. So, people are going to knock Benn for not getting rid of him. There are question marks about both guys. Where there’s no question mark is they’re both talented fighters. They both can fight at a high level.

"Will they fight at that high level? Will they perform at that high level? They’ve both made a lot of money and when you make a lot of money, you know what? That can affect the athletic side of it.

"To use that old phrase, are they not hungry anymore?

"I mean, they’re fighters, they’ll go in there, they’ll do their best, but what will that best be? It’s impacted by all of these elements that I just laid out. It’ll be an interesting fight at the end of the day. It’ll be a well-watched fight. It’ll be an interesting fight for the reasons I just laid out."