Terence Crawford has made a surprising prediction for next month’s welterweight title fight between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn.
Crawford is likely to be ringside when Garcia makes a first defence of his WBC welterweight world title against Benn on September 12 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
‘King Ry’ is a sizeable favourite with the bookmakers to defeat the Brit, but former five-weight world champion, Crawford is backing ‘The Destroyer’ to upset the odds.
“I think that’s a good fight,” the 38-year-old said on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“Of course Ryan has got the experience, but Conor has the size and the power.
“I think it’s going to be an interesting fight moving forward.
“I’m going to go with Conor.
“I think he’s going to upset him.”
Garcia won a world title at a third attempt in February, ripping away the belt from Mario Barrios.
Benn was ringside for the bout and challenges for a maiden world title in his first fight at 147 pounds in over four years.
The 29-year-old was last in action in April, overcoming Regis Prograis in a 150 pound catchweight contest, following two outings at middleweight against Chris Eubank Jr.
Benn arrived into Los Angeles last week to conclude his training camp and has confirmed that his clash with the Californian will be his last at welterweight.
“The weight cut’s brutal, man,” he told SunSport.
“It’s hard. It’s very hard.
“This will be my last fight at 147, for sure.”
The pair clashed at a press conference in New York last month and Garcia, who is training around an hour away from Benn in nearby Calabasas, is predicting a first knockout victory since his 2023 stoppage of Oscar Duarte.
“If I don’t knock him out within five rounds or below, I’ll be a little disappointed in myself,” the 27-year-old told ES News.
“But if I don’t knock him out by the fifth, I’m still going to beat the f*** out of him and hopefully knock him out later.
“I’m training to knock him out [in] under five.
“I’ve been watching a lot of tape on him.
“There ain’t no way this f***er stays in there.
“I actually think Barrios stylistically was a harder fight.
“Barrios was very tall, snappy, fast, stronger than people think.”
