Eighty seconds? That was the kind of statement Conor Benn hoped to make.
The welterweight contender began landing bombs on the face of Samuel Vargas moments after the opening bell and didn’t stop until the referee ended the fight 1 minute, 20 seconds into the first round Saturday in London.
Vargas, a solid veteran from Mexico, has lost his biggest fights but he was supposed to be a test. Instead, he was overwhelmed.
If comparisons mean anything, Errol Spence Jr. stopped Vargas in four rounds while Danny Garcia and Vergil Ortiz both did it in seven. Benn needed less than half a round, which obviously pleased him.
“All them names you mentioned,” he said to an interviewer after the fight, “no one banged him out in one round. Easy, easy. … Give me a proper test. Give me Amir Khan. … I’m ready for the top dogs, Shawn Porter, Adrian Broner if he’s campaigning at 147. I want them.
“I want to test myself at 147.”
Benn (18-0, 12 KOs) wasn’t reckless but he certainly didn’t ease into the fight. The 24-year-old son of Nigel Benn fired straight, hard shots from the outset. And most of them found the target.
Vargas (31-7-2, 14 KOs) took the first few without much problem but seemed more and more helpless as the short fight progressed. He was taking shot after shot with his back against the ropes – responding with few if any of his own punches — when referee Michael Alexander stepped in.
For Benn, it was simply a matter of seizing opportunities.
“He was there to be hit so I hit him,” he said. “I ain’t gonna be shy, I ain’t gonna hold back. If I see an opening, I’m going to take. And I damn well took it.”
Benn didn’t get a chance to display much of what he had worked on in the gym beyond punch accuracy and what he believes is developing power. And he didn’t gain much in-the-ring experience in only 80 seconds of work at Copper Box Arena.
But, as he pointed out, he did prove one thing: He could handle the pressure of headlining a big card. Not all sons of successful fighters can say that.
“I can cope with it because I’m built for it,” he said. “All this hype, I can live with it. It’s not a problem.
Benn is on a similar path in terms of age to his father, who won his first title at 26 years old when he stopped Doug DeWitt in eight rounds in 1990. The younger Benn, who turns 25 in September, should be around that age when he gets his first crack at a champion if he continues to win.
And he plans to live up to his name.
“I’m putting the Benn name back where it belongs and that’s on top,” he said. “I proved that [on Saturday] and I’ll continue to prove that.”
In preliminary fights, Savannah Marshall (10-0, 8 KOs) stopped late replacement Maria Lindberg (19-7-2, 10 KOs) in three rounds to retain her middleweight title; Shannon Courtenay (7-1, 3 KOs) defeated Ebanie Bridges (5-1, 2 KOs) by a unanimous decision to win a vacant bantamweight title; and bantamweight prospect Ukashir Farooq (15-1, 6 KOs) defeated Alexander Espinoza (20-3-2, 8 KOs) by a unanimous decision in a 10-round bout.
