The infuriating nature of their very public split in February notwithstanding, Hearn honestly can’t envision Benn beating Ryan Garcia in their fight for Garcia’s WBC welterweight title. Matchroom Boxing’s chairman doesn’t think a physically spent Benn’s power or chin will be sufficient enough for the British contender to upset Garcia when they square off September 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“I don’t like Conor Benn at 147 pounds,” Hearn told The Ring. “We saw him at 150 for the Regis Prograis fight. He looked like he lacked power. He looked tired at the weight down there and I think Ryan will be much too heavy-handed for him. But he’s got big balls and he’ll have a right go. I just don’t think at 147 he can win that fight.”

England’s Benn, 29, is contractually obligated to squeeze down to the welterweight limit of 147 for the first time since April 2022. He stopped South Africa’s Chris van Heerden in the second round of that fight four years ago, but he hasn’t weighed in lower than 149½ pounds for any of his five subsequent bouts.

As Hearn mentioned, the contracted catch weight was 150 pounds for Benn’s underwhelming 10-round points victory against Prograis on April 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Benn (25-1, 14 KOs) also hasn’t produced a knockout since his victory over van Heerden, which took place five months before Benn’s two failed tests for clomiphene, a banned substance, were revealed during the week of his hastily scrapped domestic showdown with family rival Chris Eubank Jr. in October 2022.

Benn’s lengthy, messy suspension in the United Kingdom prevented him from fighting Eubank on British soil until April 2025. He avenged his unanimous points loss to Eubank by recording a convincing 12-round win in their rematch November 15.

Hearn isn’t involved in this bout, but he is intrigued by his former fighter’s battle against Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs, 1 NC) – a popular, polarizing figure from Victorville, California.

Paramount+ will stream their 12-round fight to subscribers in the United States and DAZN will offer it to customers in the UK and Ireland. Hearn is looking forward, above all else, to watching how the promotion unfolds now that this Ring event has been officially announced.

“I think it’s an interesting fight,” Hearn said. “I look more sometimes at the dynamics and the politics of it all, which I think has been fascinating because obviously you got a lotta people who think they can do whatever they want, right? And disregard contracts, whether they be promotional or broadcast contracts and stuff like that. And, you know, you had a situation where it was always gonna be a kinda Zuffa fight, or how they wanted it [to be that] on Paramount, with no DAZN, no Oscar De La Hoya, you know, no Ring card, really. Now it’s a Ring card, co-promoted by Oscar De La Hoya and Zuffa, on DAZN in the second biggest market of the fight, which is in the UK. I like the fight – it’s two very explosive fighters. But I think it’s a much bigger fight in the UK than it is in the U.S. because I think more people in the UK know Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn than they do in the U.S.

“Everybody knows Ryan Garcia. No one really knows who Conor Benn is in the U.S. So, for DAZN to capture that fight from Sky Sports, which obviously [is partnered with Zuffa], is massive for them. And for Oscar to be co-promoting is great as well. And, by the way, I think that’s brilliant for the fight. You’re gonna have Dana [White] and Oscar up there now going at it. That’s gonna make the fight bigger. Those are actually all the little intrinsic dynamics that make the fight bigger. Because I don’t have any fighters in the fight, I look at it just from the business point of view with our partners, DAZN. And I think them and Golden Boy have done brilliantly because they’ve taken a huge part of the fight, which is great for our platform.”