By Robert Segal: British welterweight contender Conor Benn will return to the ring this Saturday, September 23rd, to battle Rodolfo Orozco in a scheduled 10 round contest on the undercard of the lightweight battle between Richardson Hitchins & Jose Zepeda on DAZN at the Caribe Royale Orlando in Orlando, Florida.
Benn has the perfect opponent to showcase his skills, as Orozo has a good chin, and he’s likely to stick around for the whole ten rounds unless he makes the same mistakes that Chris Van Heerden, Samuel Vargas, and Chris Algieri did by backing up against the ropes and being machine-gunned.
Conor says he wants Chris Eubank Jr. and would be open to fighting former middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin. The fight with the 41-year-old Golovkin is unrealistic, but it makes sense for Benn to name-drop to get attention.
If the goal is to clout-chase, Benn should focus on relevant names like Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr., or Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. Calling those guys out would play out well for Conor.
Benn is taking a tune-up to get the cobwebs off from a year & a half out of the ring to face the little-known 24-year-old Mexican fighter Orozco (32-3-3, 24 KOs) on Saturday night. The event begins at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Not much is known about Orozco other than he’s from Mexico; he started his career out at light flyweight [108 lbs] eight years ago in 2015 and moved up to welterweight a couple of years ago in 2021.
Orozco has never fought any notable opposition during his short career, not one. He’s fought mostly fighters with poor records and lost several times to these fighters: Isaias Lucero, Jose Quintero Velarde, and Abraham Lopez. Orozco’s loss to Lucero came last year.
Moving forward, it’ll be interesting to see if the 26-year-old Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) will exclusively be fighting in the U.S. to build his brand there rather than the UK. If so, Benn will have a lot of opportunities for appealing fights, such as Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, Keith Thurman, and Alexis Rocha.
The welterweight division is now wide open, with Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford leaving the weight class soon, making it perfect for Benn to take advantage of the situation after one of the belts if that’s his ultimate plan.
“There are big names that have been mentioned. Golovkin’s name was mentioned. I’d take that fight,” said Conor Benn to Matchroom Boxing.
“I’m still winning. Clean hearts always win. As for the haters. I’m still here, baby. The top boy still ain’t gone nowhere, period. Eubank knows what’s coming.”
