The two are set to compete at 147 pounds, a weight Garcia is very comfortable with. Benn, by contrast, last made that weight back in 2022 and competed at 160 and 150 pounds in his last two fights. Three more pounds down may not seem that much, but it’s the last pounds that are always the killers.
“It’s been extremely difficult,” Benn told BBC of the weight cut. “It feels like I’ve been dragged down to the pits of hell, had a fight with Satan, and God brought me back to life. Making weight has been the hardest thing I’ve done. I haven’t made [147] for four and a half years so it’s going to be hard.”
“But I won’t moan when I’m getting paid a fortune to headline in Vegas for a world title. I know what I signed up for.”
Garcia was wholly unimpressed with Benn’s comments during a pre-fight media day event.
“I don’t wanna hear no excuses,” Garcia declared. “At the end of the day, he doesn’t have a rehydration clause. He’s about to be 170, 175 in the ring. Isn’t that what he was saying? I don’t wanna be hearing no crybaby s–t from him.”
“He’s trying to set up a narrative because when he gets that ass whooped, he’s gonna be like, ‘I was drained.’ No, motherf–ker, you were 175 in that ring. I’m probably gonna be 157. He probably has like 20 pounds on me, but I’m about to beat his ass. It don’t matter how how much he weighs.”
Garcia even implied Benn might miss weight to gain even more of an advantage.
“He actually doesn’t even look on weight,” he said. “I know what he’s probably planning to do, because I seen a picture of him at 150. He doesn’t look nowhere near that.”
Garcia and Benn are set to fight on Saturday, September 12th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, just hours after an early-start Noche UFC concludes in Arizona. It should be quite the double header, so long as Benn doesn’t botch his weight cut and blow up the whole event.
