Dana White's Bold Moves in Boxing: Targeting Ryan Garcia and David Benavidez

Dana White hasn’t just dipped a toe into boxing. He’s kicked the door in, rearranged the furniture and quietly set a trap for two of the sport’s most valuable stars: Ryan Garcia and David Benavidez.

Both are one fight from free agency. Zuffa Boxing is already waiting for them.

How did it get there so fast? By overpaying for Conor Benn and Jai Opetaia — not as end goals, but as leverage pieces in a far bigger game.

Garcia’s wandering eye

The fracture between Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya isn’t new. It has simmered for years, a mix of ego, expectations and a fighter who never quite felt fully seen by his own promoter.

Then came April 2023 and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

That PBC/Showtime promotion didn’t just make Garcia rich — 1.2 million pay-per-view buys, a $22.8 million gate — it opened his eyes. He saw what a full-scale, major-league push looked like. He saw how a star is treated when everyone is all-in. Not long after, he sued Golden Boy, trying to break free.

He didn’t get out. Not then. But the seed was planted.

Now he’s down to one fight left with Golden Boy, and Zuffa has timed its move with cold precision.

Benn as the bridge

Conor Benn cost TKO and Zuffa more than $30 million over two fights. On paper, that figure is wild. In reality, it was an investment in Ryan Garcia.

The Garcia-Benn fight felt big from the moment it was announced. Not just in the arena, not just on Paramount+, but in the way the entire week moved around it. It had that “Tank” fight buzz again. Garcia felt it. He looked and sounded like a man who finally believed the machine behind him matched the image in his head.

Speaking to Uncrowned, he made it clear: he was happy with Zuffa. Very happy.

The promotion around Garcia-Benn underlined the point. Officially, it was a Ring Magazine-funded show. In practice, it looked and felt like a Zuffa/TKO production. Dana White front and center. The branding, the broadcast, the narrative — all of it framed Garcia as a Zuffa fighter already.

Oscar De La Hoya? Invisible. No presence in the build-up, no presence on fight night. It wasn’t an accident. It was strategy.

The public now associates Garcia with Zuffa and Paramount+. That’s the first step. Make the fighter feel like a star, make the audience believe he already belongs to you, and let the final fight on the old contract tick away in the background.

Benn helped Zuffa do that. He also helped them do something else: hurt Eddie Hearn.

Breaking Hearn’s heart

Conor Benn wasn’t just another Matchroom name. He was one of Eddie Hearn’s homegrown pillars, bracketed in the same emotional space as Katie Taylor and Anthony Joshua. Benn turned pro with Matchroom. Hearn stood by him through multiple failed drug tests for clomiphene. He fought hard for Benn’s reputation and future.

Then Benn walked.

The message was brutal: nobody is safe. Not with Hearn, not with any traditional promoter. If the money and the vision aren’t there, Zuffa will ask the question. And fighters will answer.

Bob Arum once warned: “Don’t fall in love with your fighters because they will break your heart.” Hearn learned that lesson late. De La Hoya learned it with his own stars. Arum learned it decades ago.

Zuffa, by contrast, isn’t sentimental. Benn is a star in the UK, a key to the Sky Sports deal and a battering ram into the British market. He’s also a warning shot to every promoter who thinks loyalty trumps leverage.

Opetaia, Benavidez and the next move

On the Garcia-Benn undercard, Jai Opetaia did exactly what Zuffa needed him to do. He stopped Noel Mikaelian in nine rounds, then called out David Benavidez on the spot.

Benavidez, sitting ringside, stepped between the ropes and stared down the Australian. The picture told its own story: Zuffa already has the man Benavidez needs to fight.

Benavidez is in a similar contractual spot to Garcia. One fight left with PBC and Sampson Lewkowicz. One more obligation before he can listen to every offer on the table. White hasn’t hidden his intentions; “The Mexican Monster” is a clear target.

For years, Benavidez was the most credible threat at 168 pounds yet never landed Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. He moved to 175, chased the elite, and never got Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev. Now at cruiserweight, he finally has a direct path to the division’s No. 1 man in Opetaia — and a platform willing to pay him like a headliner.

Benavidez has already shown what kind of fighter he is. He wants names, he wants danger, he wants the fights people say he can’t win. Offer him Oleksandr Usyk at heavyweight and you’d expect him to nod.

Zuffa knows this. It has Opetaia. It has money. It has a clear narrative: come here, take the toughest guy in the division, and cement yourself as the pound-for-pound king.

Garcia and Benavidez have even talked about sharing a card next May. If Zuffa lands Garcia once he’s free, it suddenly has the perfect stage to bring Benavidez in for at least one fight. One night under that spotlight might be all it takes to make him think seriously about a permanent move.

It worked on Garcia. Why not Benavidez?

Opetaia vs the belts

Jai Opetaia isn’t just bait for Benavidez. He’s also Zuffa’s sharpest weapon in its long-running war with boxing’s sanctioning bodies.

The public feud has cooled in tone, but Dana White’s endgame hasn’t shifted. He wants to strip power from the alphabet organizations. Opetaia’s story gives him ammunition.

The Australian has made no secret of his ambition: win every belt, become undisputed. Instead, he’s watched titles disappear off his waist in boardrooms and emails. The IBF stripped him in March. On Saturday, he beat WBC champion Noel Mikaelian, only for that belt to be declared vacant within 48 hours.

To most fans, the best cruiserweight in the world doesn’t hold a recognized world title. That’s a credibility problem — for the IBF and WBC, not for Opetaia.

Zuffa is turning that into a case study. Opetaia has already filed a lawsuit against the IBF, accusing it of unlawfully stripping him in retaliation for his decision to sign with Zuffa. He’s no longer just a victim of the system; he’s the vehicle for a direct challenge to it.

Benn got Zuffa into Garcia’s orbit and bloodied Hearn. Opetaia gives it a route to Benavidez and a live, active fight with the sanctioning structure itself.

The post-Canelo battlefield

Ryan Garcia and David Benavidez sit on the edge of a new era. As Canelo Alvarez moves toward the twilight of his career, those two have the charisma and violence to become the faces of American boxing.

Zuffa hasn’t signed either man yet. It doesn’t need to rush. The groundwork is already in place.

The public sees Garcia as a Zuffa fighter. Benavidez sees his most meaningful path at cruiserweight running straight through a Zuffa champion. Promoters who once believed their biggest names were untouchable have already watched them walk.

TKO’s war on boxing is still in its opening rounds. But if it can pull Garcia and Benavidez into its corner, how many more generals will switch sides when the contracts start to expire?