Garcia names – Ryan Garcia said on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” that he will fight Conor Benn on Sept. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. But nearly 48 hours later, Golden Boy Promotions, UFC/Zuffa Boxing, the WBC, and even the arena itself have not confirmed the
When Ryan Garcia stepped onto “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on May 18, he didn’t just show off his WBC world welterweight championship belt. He used it to draw a line straight to his next opponent.
Garcia announced that his next fight would be against Conor Benn on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas, with Fallon later adding the bout would take place at T-Mobile Arena. The tease was sharp enough to spark immediate buzz—Benn, 29, had posted a video the day before showing him and Garcia trading trash talk.
But the numbers don’t line up cleanly. Almost 48 hours after Garcia’s appearance on the show, the other parties who would have to make the fight official have not confirmed it.
Golden Boy Promotions, the company that promotes Garcia, has not signed off on the plan. Jane Murcia, Director of Communications for Golden Boy Promotions, said, “I can’t confirm anything at this time.”
On the other side of the negotiations. UFC co-founder Dana White—who is also co-founder of Zuffa Boxing and who promotes Benn—has offered no confirmation through the channels that would normally clarify a deal. Lenee Breckenridge, Senior VIP of Communications at UFC, said, “there’s nothing to confirm at this time regarding Ryan.”.
That gap matters because cooperation wouldn’t be the easy part of the process. Oscar De La Hoya. Golden Boy Promotions’ CEO and Garcia’s promoter. and Dana White—Zuffa Boxing co-founder and UFC’s CEO who promotes Benn—are central players who would have to work through the kind of friction that has derailed fights in the past.
The business history around big events includes examples of rivals eventually joining forces. In 1999, Bob Arum and Don King both promoted major fights—Arum promoted Felix Trinidad vs. Oscar De La Hoya, and King promoted Felix Trinidad—showing that animosity can coexist with paydays.
Still, the fight that Garcia described needs more than two camps agreeing on a date. The WBC, the sanctioning body, would have to sign off—either for Garcia to keep his belt or for it to be put at stake if and when he fights Benn.
As of now, there has been no word from the WBC.
Then there’s the venue itself. The fight is not listed on T-Mobile Arena’s calendar of events, and the arena did not return an email seeking comment.
Put together, the timeline creates a simple tension: Garcia has named an opponent, a date, and a location—while the confirmations that would make it real have not arrived. The sequence leaves room for different explanations, and the lack of clarity is the story.
A deal would require the same kind of alignment that has happened before in boxing’s biggest matchups. But in this case. the public record is missing the usual middle steps—promotional confirmation. sanctioning sign-off. and venue listing—leaving the bout living in the space between announcement and agreement.
Ryan Garcia Conor Benn Dana White Golden Boy Promotions WBC T-Mobile Arena Zuffa Boxing UFC Las Vegas boxing