Conor Benn on Paw Patrol, masculinity, and the contradictions behind Ryan Garcia fight

Conor Benn is sat cross legged on a large red sofa, positioned in the corner of an apartment in Los Angeles. Leaning back, he feels a long way from the camera, so much so that I can’t be sure whether he’s sporting a slight black eye. I also can’t be sure whether the distance is intentional.

Maybe I’m imagining a slight frostiness in the opening seconds of our Zoom call; you can’t always be certain whether an athlete has read what you’ve written about them, and in Benn’s case, there has been criticism in these pages.

But any frost, real or imagined, quickly thaws in the California sun and through conversation. Having written about the 30-year-old’s drug-test saga extensively (and having been in the room when Benn threatened to drag a journalist out by his neck), as well as his shocking split from promoter Eddie Hearn this year, I honestly feel we could both use some respite from the controversies.

My inclination today is just to talk to, and about, Benn the person.

Conor Benn during his win over Regis Prograis in April (Getty)

And once he gets going, he speaks calmly – almost philosophically at times. In places, his cadence sounds exactly like that of his father Nigel, one of British boxing’s fiercest personalities. But again: Conor’s own fierce side is absent today.

Every now and then, the white wall behind him brightens a little more, as sun pours in through what must be a balcony door off-screen, drenching the British boxer and the room around him. His hair is fashioned in bleach-blonde corn rows, which hover atop a black vest and grey jogging bottoms.

Unwittingly, he’s half-a-step ahead of me, all throughout our conversation; almost every time I wish to broach a subject, he arrives there in the preceding answer. For example, off the bat he says of training in LA: “Obviously it’s challenging. I’m not with my family.”

For Benn, family proved an escape from scrutiny during a lengthy episode that stemmed from two failed drug tests in 2022. Benn always proclaimed his innocence, and in November 2024 – over two years after the saga began – he was cleared to box in the UK again.

With his wife Victoria, Benn is a father to two sons and one daughter. What is the best part of being a dad, I ask? “Oh, man, there’s so many,” he says, before a prolonged, pondering silence, broken only by Benn repeating the question to himself. “There’s something endearing about knowing that for my kids, I am their world,” he says at last. “Irrelevant of everything that’s going on in the world, everything anyone’s saying, whatever’s in the media, my kids… I’m just their world.

“I come home, and I’m just dad; they just want my love, affection and time. Everything becomes silent. My son’s just lying on my chest, and he’s watching Paw Patrol. That’s the only thing that matters to them, and there’s something so warming about that. No matter what I’m going through, they just need me. Does that make sense?”

But it took Benn time to settle into this state of domestic-bliss-is-ignorance. “It was a real hard one, because I really struggled with being a dad, or partner, or… I felt pressure being a partner and a dad,” he says. “It maybe hindered me. I just couldn’t cope with it at the time.

Benn avenged an April 2025 loss to Chris Eubank Jr with a November victory (Getty)

“I was struggling in my own world. Do you know what I mean? But towards a year-and-a-half in, I looked at my son and… he changed me then. I was like, ‘This isn’t who your dad is, this isn’t who you deserve. I brought you into this world to give you the best life I possibly can. If that’s without boxing, my job is to be the best dad I can be, and that’s what I’m going to be.’

“Everything I do is based on mine and my dad’s relationship. I try to be a better version of my dad than he was, and he was a great dad. But I try and not make the mistakes he made. But I also remember the good, so then I try and do the good. I want to install the same work ethic, mindset, but also just know my son’s loved. I want him to see how a woman should be treated. I just want to be a good example to my son as a man, partner, dad, brother, son.”

When Benn touches on the pressures of being a father and partner, the conversation veers towards traditional ideas of masculinity.

“My non-negotiable: every man should do their best to provide and protect,” he says. “That’s my opinion, everyone’s opinion is different. The way I’m raised and what I believe in is maybe very different to everyone in this room.

Benn with his wife Victoria, attending Ryan Garcia’s WBC title win in February (Getty)

“Every decision I make is for the good of my family, no longer for the good of Conor, no longer for me being selfish, no longer for what my desires are of the flesh. It’s not ‘do as I say’; it’s ‘do as I do, son’. It’s: ‘I want you to be a better version of me.’ I want to set the bar so high, in terms of what it is to be a provider, a leader of the family. There is no ‘I, Conor’; there is ‘we, family’.”

I must, of course, ask Benn about Ryan Garcia. On Saturday, the pair will headline in Las Vegas, as Benn challenges the American star for the WBC welterweight title. In fighting Garcia, Benn might have finally encountered a boxer as divisive as himself.

Garcia, 28, served a one-year drug-related ban from 2024 until 2025, after failing a test on the week of his shock win over Devin Haney. Garcia, an avid streamer, has also been open about his problems with alcohol and mental health.

“I’m not saying that I dislike him or hate him, it’s not a Chris Eubank Jr situation,” says Benn, referencing his two duels with his bitter rival in 2025. Still, Benn was snarling at Garcia in trademark fashion at their launch press conference.

“You haven’t got to like everyone, have you? We’re just not the same. My pillars are very different to his. Mine’s family, working hard, choosing the hard way – because the hard way pays off later on – whereas he’s one of these Gen Z kids, ‘kid-men’ who want an easy life. I’m just not wired that way. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion is my sort of mindset.”

Benn facing off with Garcia in July (Getty)

Earlier this year, some disputed that this was Benn’s actual mindset when he signed with new promotion Zuffa Boxing, leaving Hearn for his rival Dana White. A rumoured $15m payday accompanied the move, but with the traditional governing bodies hinting that they would not allow Zuffa fighters to box for the established belts, some asked the question: was Benn’s switch about the gold one wears around their waist, or the type that fills bank vaults?

Still, Benn might somehow get both, given his WBC clash against Garcia is around the corner. And in any case, Benn would direct you to what he said earlier: “Every decision I make is for the good of my family.”

In fact, though some fans might protest this, he might have emerged as one of the smarter boxers when it comes to plotting out a route that maximises money, profile, and – with a bit of luck – glory.

“I just want to be the best version of me, be in the biggest fights possible, challenge myself against the best. Is that not what we’re in this game for?” he asks. “Am I not here to really push the limits? To see how far Conor Benn can go? It was maybe only after my 15th fight that I realised I can go all the way.

“Three stadium shows, now headlining in Vegas, a ‘fight of the year’ with Eubank. It’s been a crazy 16 months, but I believed in getting here. This isn’t by chance, you know?”

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