They say it's better to be lucky than good in sport. Perhaps in life, too. But what about boxing?
In an era where social media, clicks and soundbites hold the cards, notoriety can be just as valuable as ability. Sometimes, being talked about is much more than half the battle.
As Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote in his debut novel “The Sympathizer,” "While it is better to be loved than hated, it is also far better to be hated than ignored. "
Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn appear to have taken that sentiment to heart. This weekend's two antagonists — who meet inside Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night for the WBC welterweight title — have spent plenty of time making sure they are anything but ignored.
Of course, boxing has always had a soft spot for villains. What's yin without yang?
Neither Garcia nor Benn arrives in Sin City with a clean sheet, and neither cares.
Benn, the 29-year-old challenger, still has his father's shadow to outrun. Back-to-back fights with family rival Chris Eubank Jr. — who agreed to weight-restricting stipulations — are the only examples the Essex fighter can point to in terms of top-shelf career highlights. In 2021 he blitzed through a trio of Samuel Vargas, Adrian Granados and Chris Algieri, before a big asterisk caused his momentum to stall.
This asterisk comes in the form of failed drug tests. Both men this weekend have failed drug tests. But both are here anyway, headlining a pay-per-view card on Mexican Independence Day weekend, about to embark on one of the richest nights of their lives.
That's not an accident. It's the business model. It's the villain economy that they have been allowed to thrive in.
Garcia tested positive for ostarine before and after his 2024 win over Devin Haney — a result he blamed on contaminated supplements. Benn's own case, stemming from elevated clomifene levels ahead of his scheduled — later postponed — 2022 fight with Chris Eubank Jr, dragged through appeals and independent panels for the better part of two years.
Both were, in their own ways, cleared to fight on. Back in 2024, Garcia responded not with contrition but with a since-deleted post on X declaring his love of steroids, followed almost immediately by a walk-back.
Benn's saga ran longer and uglier. Two positive tests for the fertility drug sometimes used to stimulate natural testosterone production surfaced during fight week in October 2022. The WBC accepted an explanation involving elevated egg consumption, but UK Anti-Doping did not. To this day, Benn has never stopped insisting he did nothing wrong, and he never really had to answer for the possibility that he had.
The promotional company and the man that had stood behind Benn throughout these two tumultuous years, Matchroom Boxing and its chairman Eddie Hearn, were cast aside earlier this year. Benn jumped ship in favor of Dana White's Zuffa Boxing, completing his villain arc.
In all other sports, these records follow athletes like a stain. Contracts terminated and reputations broken beyond repair. In boxing, it's practically a promotional tool; part of the pitch — proof that the only thing that truly disqualifies a fighter is being boring.
Character flaws aside, Garcia and Benn are far from boring. Both men have a sharp tongue, fiery personalities, fearless self-confidence and a front-footed style of in-ring combat that typically produces memorable nights of action.
It's a deliberate effort from both. Garcia has accrued a likely sizable net worth aided by a strong online presence, the currency closest to his heart. He’s only dwarfed in Instagram followers by three active boxers: Jake Paul, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Anthony Joshua. His ability to draw a non-traditional boxing crowd to his events is unique.
Speaking to Logan Paul on the “Impaulsive” podcast, when speaking on his lack of hobbies, Benn said: "I wouldn't tune in to watch a boxing match. It's weird. I like characters, I like people. So, they could be a low-level boxer, but if they've got a load of character and are entertaining, then I'm into that. "
Have boxing economics shifted toward outrage? Forget your well-mannered, gentlemanly world champions. It's now a toss-up of what would reap more long-term rewards: kissing a baby, or drop-kicking one.
What a champion needs now is reach — a following built on being loud, unfiltered and occasionally unhinged.
Garcia has spent years perfecting that formula, oscillating between genuine talent and public spectacle so consistently that it's become impossible to separate the two. Benn, for his part, has leaned into being boxing's most argued-about and wrestled-over man in Britain, a fighter whose underwhelming ring résumé is almost beside the point next to the noise that follows him.
Put them in the same building and you get a heel vs. heel main event the sport usually tries to avoid. Two men the boxing public has decided, for different, legitimate reasons, not fully to trust.
Yet it's selling. Because even if we don't believe it, most of us are still buying it. And until boxing decides to have a sorely needed fight with its own reflection, this won't change.
