Ryan Garcia blocks Conor Benn from using larger gloves if he misses weight

Ryan Harkness breaks down daily mixed martial arts (MMA) news, providing unique context to stories that only 15 years of obsessing over the sport can provide, having worked for FOX Sports, Yahoo! Sports, UPROXX, MSN, Bleacher Report, HDNet and CagePotato, among others, before joining MMAmania.com in 2017.

Ryan Garcia is so concerned that Conor Benn will miss weight that he contacted the Nevada State Athletic commission to make a rules request in case he doesn’t.

Benn has made a big deal of being able to hit 147 again after five years of fighting at higher weight classes. To Garcia, that sounds like the start of an excuse the U.K. fighter is cooking up to cover for an impending poor performance. It also may be part of a rules-bending plot from Team Benn to fight with larger gloves, so Garcia went to the NSAC to ensure it’s not.

In Nevada, fights contested above 148 pounds are done with 10-ounce gloves. Team Garcia went to the NSAC to ensure Garcia vs. Benn would go down with 8-ounce gloves even if Benn shows up north of 148.

“I just wanted to make sure that if he does not come in on weight, I still want to use the weapons that I’m used to using which are 8-ounce gloves,” Garcia explained. “So it’s more than just a cautionary thing in case he doesn’t make weight that I still get to use 8-ounce gloves because that’s why I fight at 147, and I don’t want to fight with 10-ounce [gloves].”

“It’s more deadly with 8-ounce gloves, so that’s why I did that.”

It’s unclear whether Garcia truly believes Benn will miss weight or this is all just mental warfare leading up to their big Mexican Independence Day event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this Saturday September 12th. We’ll find out soon … weigh-ins for the fight go down later today (Fri. Sept. 11th, 2026).