Ryan Garcia and David Benavidez are both one fight away from free agency, and Zuffa Boxing has positioned itself perfectly to secure their signatures. How? By signing Conor Benn and Jai Opetaia, of course.
Benn and Opetaia may have been presented as the centerpieces of Zuffa Boxing, but in reality, both are pawns in much bigger games.
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The relationship between Garcia and his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, is already strained. That has been the case for many years. Garcia has subconsciously been looking for a different promoter — a savior as it were — to walk into his career and promote and respect him the way he wants.
Garcia had his most successful financial promotion in his fight against Gervonta “Tank” Davis in April 2023. The event — a PBC promotion on Showtime — generated 1.2 million pay-per-view buys and a $22.8 million gate. In the months afterward, Garcia sued Golden Boy to try to get out of his contract.
What happened? He experienced a major fight promotion with PBC and Showtime and realized exactly what he was missing.
That time, however, he was unable to switch promoters. But now that he has just one fight remaining with Golden Boy, the landscape is different.
Jai Opetaia could be the key to bigger and better things for Zuffa.
(Ed Mulholland/Zuffa Boxing via Getty Images)
Zuffa Boxing and TKO paid Conor Benn more than $30 million across two fights, in part to be able to promote a Garcia fight. Garcia once again experienced what he did in the “Tank” fight against Benn. It was a major event, it was promoted extremely well and left Garcia feeling like a superstar.
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Garcia, while speaking to Uncrowned on Monday, reiterated how happy he was working with Dana White’s Zuffa, and there was no better time for Zuffa to move in and show him what could potentially lie ahead.
There was an attempt — which was in no way subtle — to position Garcia-Benn as a Zuffa event and Garcia as a Zuffa fighter. Garcia-Benn was a Ring Magazine-funded show, but you wouldn’t have known that by following the fight promotion and watching the event on Paramount+. It was firmly positioned as a TKO/Zuffa event, with White playing the promoter role for the fight — and ultimately, for Garcia.
De La Hoya was nowhere to be seen. Not during the build-up, not on fight night — not anywhere. And that was all strategic. The public already associates Garcia with Zuffa and Paramount+. The building job has begun. And Zuffa is already showing Garcia and the public that it is the best at promoting major boxing events.
That was one benefit of signing Benn. Another? To break the heart of White’s biggest rival in boxing, Eddie Hearn.
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Zuffa poaching Benn was a devastating blow to Hearn and Matchroom. Not just for business reasons, but for emotional ones too. Benn was considered, alongside Katie Taylor and Anthony Joshua, as one of the marquee Matchroom fighters. Fighters who had debuted for Matchroom, fighters whom Hearn would fight for — something he did in the two years after Benn’s multiple failed drug tests for the female fertility drug clomiphene — and fighters who would supposedly never leave him.
When Benn did leave, it sent the message that nobody was off the table. Every fighter with Hearn — or any other promoter for that matter — was in play. They were all going to be approached when the time was right, and if the traditional promoters couldn’t pony up the cash, they’d have to wave goodbye.
It was a brutal message to the Brit, who had made the biggest mistake in fight promotion: Falling in love with a fighter.
Bob Arum once said: “Don’t fall in love with your fighters because they will break your heart.”
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It seems like a cold and unenjoyable way to conduct business, but it’s the reality of the sport. Arum learned it the hard way. De La Hoya found that out firsthand. And now it was Hearn’s turn.
David Benavidez (right) is interviewed at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 12, 2026, in Las Vegas across from Jai Opetaia.
(Ed Mulholland/Zuffa Boxing via Getty Images)
Benn is also a major star in UK boxing and there have already been countless other benefits to having him on its roster, including Zuffa securing a lucrative UK television deal with Sky Sports and building the promotion’s footprint in the market.
In the co-feature for Garcia-Benn, Opetaia stopped Noel Mikaelian in nine rounds and called out David Benavidez immediately afterward. Benavidez, who was ringside for the event, was allowed into the ring to face off with the Aussie.
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Benavidez has just one fight left with PBC and promoter Sampson Lewkowicz, and White has made no secret the “The Mexican Monster” is on his hit list, too.
Benavidez was once the most proven contender at 168 pounds, but he didn’t get to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. So he moved up to 175 pounds and tried to make a fight with the top guys there, but he didn’t share the ring with either Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev. Now that he’s at cruiserweight, he finally has the opportunity to fight the No. 1 guy in the division and prove for once and for all that he is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
Benavidez has already shown that he is a legacy fighter. He wants to fight the top guys, he wants to prove he’s the best, and he wants to take on challenges that people don’t think he can win.
If you offered Benavidez a fight with Oleksandr Usyk at heavyweight, I’m sure he would say yes. He’s just that kind of guy.
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With Opetaia — and a pile of money — waiting for him at Zuffa Boxing, the carrot has already been dangled to try to entice Benavidez into the Zuffa Boxing sphere.
Better yet, Garcia and Benavidez have already spoken about sharing a card next May. If Zuffa can get Garcia, it is well positioned to get Benavidez, too, at least for one fight. And one fight may be all it takes to show Benavidez how successful his career could be if he made the switch to Zuffa. After all, it appears to have worked for Garcia.
But there’s another benefit to signing Opetaia: Zuffa’s war against the sanctioning bodies. This battle has grown quieter as Zuffa has worked with boxing’s four major sanctioning bodies more in recent times, but make no mistake, White’s end goal hasn’t changed.
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Opetaia has long made it known he wants to win all the belts and become an undisputed champion, but even he has to be frustrated with the sanctioning bodies. The Aussie was stripped of his IBF title in March, and this past Saturday, he defeated WBC champion Noel Mikaelian only for the belt to be declared vacant less than 48 hours after.
In the general public’s eyes, the IBF and WBC have a lot to answer for when the consensus best cruiserweight in the world is not holding a sanctioning body’s world title.
Opetaia is not merely evidence for Zuffa’s case against the sanctioning bodies; he is now the vehicle through which it can challenge their authority. After the IBF stripped him in March, Opetaia filed a lawsuit accusing the organization of unlawfully taking his title in retaliation for his decision to sign with Zuffa.
Opetaia and Benn were major signings for Zuffa Boxing, but they weren’t the end goal. Benn helped Zuffa enter Garcia’s orbit and strike at Hearn. Opetaia offers it a route to Benavidez and a weapon against the sanctioning bodies.
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Garcia and Benavidez could become the two faces of American boxing in the post-Canelo era. Zuffa has not signed either — yet. But before they have even reached free agency, White has already placed the pieces required to tempt them across the board.
TKO’s war on boxing is still in the early stages. And it may have already set itself up to land two of the sport’s most valuable generals.
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