Shedding those final few pounds poses a challenge that Benn has not had to confront for a long time.
“It has been four years since Conor last fought at the welterweight limit,” Duke McKenzie remarked to talkSPORT Boxing. “When you are forced to dehydrate and exhaust yourself just to hit the scale, it compromises your peak performance.”
In McKenzie’s view, the issue will not magically vanish just because Benn has the opportunity to rehydrate after the weigh-in.
“I doubt Conor Benn will possess enough physical power because he is going to be severely drained from the weight cut,” McKenzie explained. “Regardless of how much food you consume overnight, there is a limit to how much recovery your body can make.”
His performance in the Prograis bout only serves to validate these apprehensions.
Spencer Oliver pointed out that Benn hit 150 pounds for that matchup and appeared to lose some of the explosive power he demonstrated at 160 pounds against Eubank. Forcing his body down an extra three pounds means stripping weight from a frame that has not operated at the welterweight ceiling in a very long time.
“As anyone who has cut weight knows, shedding those final three pounds is incredibly grueling; to an ordinary person, it feels like dropping three stones and it drains your energy completely,” Oliver observed. “The clash with Regis Prograis clearly demonstrated that hitting 147 is going to be an uphill battle for Conor Benn.”
Paul Smith highlights a different potential pitfall. While Benn’s physical stature ought to offer him an upper hand in theory, Smith argues that squeezing that larger frame down to the limit will prove detrimental.
“I believe it will lead to his defeat because he has not hit that weight in such a long time,” Smith remarked.
Although Benn has previously displayed devastating power at welterweight, the uncertainty lies in whether he can replicate that force after spending years campaigning in heavier divisions.
Successfully making 147 pounds is merely the initial hurdle. Maintaining the strength required to handle Garcia in the ring afterward will likely be the far greater challenge.
