The improved, maturing Garcia demolished “The Destroyer” even earlier than he predicted he’d knock out Conor Benn in their fight for his WBC welterweight title at T-Mobile Arena. Garcia’s win was hardly surprising to those who expected Benn’s harmful weight cut and lack of experience to hinder his ability to make their high-profile fight competitive.

Here are five things The Ring learned from the Garcia-Benn card.

You can’t blame Benn for capitalizing on being in the right place at the right time, when Zuffa Boxing is overpaying fighters as the deep-pocketed company attempts to make a seismic impact quickly in the boxing business.

The opportunistic Brit should not, however, have received a shot at the WBC welterweight title. He hadn’t fought at the division’s 147-pound limit in almost 4½ years and never beat a top 10 contender when he was a legitimate welterweight.

Benn’s inexperience also cost him against Garcia (26-2, 21 KOs, 1 NC), who made him pay for pressing forward with not nearly enough regard for the champion’s vaunted hand speed and power.

The 29-year-old Benn’s punch resistance was predictably compromised by dropping down to 146 pounds as well. It was one of the foremost factors in Benn (25-2, 14 KOs) lasting less than two rounds in what amounted to an embarrassing performance.

Rebuilding Benn won’t be easy after such a devastating defeat, which could lead to a rubber match against English rival Chris Eubank Jr.

Like it or not, a third Benn-Eubank bout remains marketable in the UK. Their handlers must be careful about how they’re matched, too, which makes matching them a third time sensible.

An appreciative Garcia gushed about how he was treated by Zuffa Boxing throughout the promotion of his demolition of Benn.

He might as well have just come out and announced during his post-fight press conference that he will sign with the company fronted by Dana White once his contract with Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions expires after his next fight. White was also effusive in his praise of the 28-year-old Garcia, which surely infuriated De La Hoya, who was conspicuously absent Saturday night.

Garcia emphasized Zuffa’s ability to cross-promote him through TKO-affiliated juggernauts UFC and WWE. White discussed him becoming the “face of boxing” after the card Saturday night, Garcia’s first main event on one of two traditional Mexican holiday weekends in Las Vegas, generated roughly $8 million in ticket sales.

Zuffa won’t be involved in Garcia’s next bout, though, assuming he faces Teofimo Lopez next in a welterweight title unification clash. Lopez has an exclusive contract with DAZN, as does De La Hoya’s company.

It looks as if we’ll get the cruiserweight fight we want now that Jai Opetaia and David Benavidez orally agreed to go at it next after Opetaia stopped Noel Mikaelian in the ninth round of the co-feature.

Opetaia owns The Ring belt, but Benavidez, our No. 1 contender, should be favored based on what we witnessed.

The Australian southpaw’s footwork and athleticism are advantages over Benavidez. Opetaia overpowered Mikaelian, who was knocked out for the first time, later in their fight as well.

But before his vicious four-punch combination finished Mikaelian, the 35-year-old Armenian veteran exposed Opetaia’s defensive deficiencies by continually connecting with right hands. A stunning shot in the seventh round buzzed Opetaia (31-0, 24 KOs) and forced him to hold and wrestle Mikaelian to the canvas.

Mikaelian (28-4, 12 KOs) is more calculating than Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) but possesses less power, which could cause Opetaia problems he won’t be able to overcome if he doesn’t tighten up his defense while dealing with a relentless opponent. Benavidez blew out another southpaw who owned cruiserweight titles in his last bout, yet Opetaia should be fresher and certainly faster than Gilberto Ramirez was when Benavidez battered him into submission in the sixth round May 2 at T-Mobile Arena.

Overhyping developing prospects is commonplace in boxing as they obliterate overmatched opponents.

Before we start touting Da’Mazion Vanhouter as America’s answer to pre-August 29 Moses Itauma, however, we’ll need to see him face an opponent capable of taking him beyond the first round. He is only 21 and the former junior middleweight has just seven heavyweight fights on his record, but the outcome of his scheduled 10-rounder against Nigeria’s Raphael Akpejiori was beyond predictable.

Vanhouter (13-0, 10 KOs) dropped Akpejiori (19-4, 18 KOs) twice in the first round and knocked him out just 1:58 into the bout before Opetaia stopped Mikaelian.

The 6-foot-8 Akpejiori had been knocked out by American Stephan Shaw (21-2, 16 KOs) in the first round 17 months ago and Russian Arslanbek Makhmudov (21-3, 19 KOs) in the second round in July 2023. He still served his purpose by helping Vanhouter look as explosive as possible on a high-profile card.

There shouldn’t be a rush in matching Vanhouter against a top 15 heavyweight. Still, if Zuffa Boxing is going to market him as the next big thing in the division, he should at least face an opponent who won’t fall down the first time Vanhouter hits him.

The best fight Saturday was buried on the Garcia-Benn undercard, the second out of nine bouts because neither fighter is affiliated with Zuffa.

Less than a thousand fans were in T-Mobile Arena when Alexis Rocha and Jose Ramirez, both Golden Boy boxers, entered the ring for their 10-round welterweight bout before 3 p.m. PT. The sparse crowd and anyone who watched it on Paramount+ or DAZN were treated to an action-packed, competitive contest Rocha won by unanimous decision.

Ramirez seemed to deserve more credit on the scorecards than judges Kermit Bayless (98-91), Max De Luca (98-91) and Chris Migliore (97-92) gave him. The former WBC/WBO 140-pound champ still proved that he could continue competing with welterweight contenders at 34.

Ramirez (29-4, 18 KOs) hadn’t fought since WBO champ Devin Haney handled him relatively easily in their 12-round bout in May 2025. A motivated Ramirez was much more competitive against Rocha (27-2-1, 16 KOs) than he was on The Ring’s card at Times Square in New York.

Rocha, meanwhile, remains in position for meaningful fights. The Ring’s No. 9 welterweight contender has his limitations, yet the gritty southpaw provides plenty of entertainment and could work his way to a title shot sometime in 2027.