For all the difficulty presented by the weight cut, there was little outward sign of Benn being weighed down by the occasion.

He was relaxed and in good spirits as he made time for the travelling British media at the UFC’s Meta Apex, with father and British boxing great Nigel Benn by his side.

One man Conor Benn is yet to see, however, is his opponent.

Garcia did not appear for a scheduled face-off at Mandalay Bay on Tuesday, with Benn told beforehand that the champion would not be attending.

“I have a lot of experience in this game. I’ve been fighting big fights for a long time – much longer than him – and I’ve been in Vegas long enough to realise certain things are not worth my time,” Garcia said.

“I have a routine to follow; I need to stay sharp. I’ll let him go and stare at himself, but I’ve got a job to do. I needed to train.

“We’ve got a face-off on the press conference, on the weigh-in and then in the ring. How many face-offs do we need?

“I don’t need to play mind games. He’s getting his ass whooping regardless. He could be confident, he could be happy, sad, drained, strong or anything he wants to be – the skills will pay the bills in that ring.”

Benn turned up to the weigh-in regardless and jokingly squared up to his 62-year-old father instead.

The former two-weight world champion has been a prominent presence throughout fight week, despite previously suggesting he would take a step back from his son’s career.

Benn described Garcia as a “strange geezer” and said the no-show had done the champion “no favours”.

“I’m not bothered, I’ve dealt with worse,” Conor Benn added. “If he turns up or not, it makes no difference to me.

“Irrespective of how hard the weight cut is or anything else, we owe it to the public to give the fans what they want. It’s a lack of discipline and professionalism.”