On one side of the road, Las Vegas tourists were being turned upside down on the New York-New York Hotel’s rollercoaster.

On the other side, the biggest night of Conor Benn’s career plummeted into freefall.

The polarising British welterweight arrived at T-Mobile Arena chasing a first world title and vindication after four chaotic years that stretched his reputation, career and resolve almost to breaking point.

But rather than Benn leaving with his mission accomplished, Ryan Garcia laid bare the unforgiving reality of elite-level boxing, taking just two rounds to dismantle, drop and stop the 29-year-old.

The Essex fighter’s career has been so consumed by events outside the ring – the failed drugs test and provisional suspension, the WBC’s mocked “highly elevated egg consumption” ruling, the Chris Eubank Jr saga and an acrimonious split with Eddie Hearn – that the most basic question of just how good he actually is had become obscured.

“It went kind of exactly how I imagined it. He was going to try and put pressure on me straight away,” Garcia said afterwards.

“He was banking on the idea I may just start folding early on and maybe get tired. You can’t jump in like that. It’s not the move.”

Benn was taken to hospital after the fight, in what was understood to be a precautionary measure.

The manner of defeat provided the clearest answer yet about Benn’s place in the boxing world order.

It forces a reassessment of the route which brought Benn here, and whether his body of work really suggested he was ready for, or deserving of, a world-title fight.

Benn had not competed at the 10st 7lb welterweight limit for more than four years, with the two defining nights of his career coming at middleweight against Eubank.

His revenge victory in the rematch was impressive, but a points win over faded 37-year-old Regis Prograis in April hardly looked ideal preparation for a fight against Garcia – one of the world’s leading welterweights.

Yet such is Benn’s commercial pull that the traditional stages of a boxing education have often felt secondary. His surname brings attention given his father’s illustrious career, his fighting style guarantees excitement, and the story around him has rarely been anything other than compelling.

Garcia, though, provided something none of those aspects can – an elite examination – and Benn failed it.

Thirty-six years after Nigel Benn stopped Iran Barkley in the opening round in Las Vegas, his son was chasing his own defining night.

As the Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua era moves towards its conclusion, British boxing is increasingly searching for its next crossover star and Benn looked the part in Las Vegas before battle commenced.

He had the swagger, the looks and the tailor-made dress sense. Speaking Spanish during media interviews even helped turn some Mexican boos into cheers.

The Americans bought into the package and Zuffa Boxing leaned heavily into his aura, with Dame Helen Mirren narrating a promotional film charting his rise.

But looking like a world-level star and possessing world-level ability are not the same thing.

Benn entered as the WBC’s number one contender and BoxRec’s highest-ranked British welterweight despite his inactivity in the division.

British boxing has now been given two uncomfortable reminders about ‘levels’ in quick succession.

Nobody should begrudge a fighter for accepting a life-changing world-title shot, but bypassing the traditional British, Commonwealth and European route removes learning fights.

Heavyweight Moses Itauma has extraordinary talent but was accelerated towards a world title fight with Filip Hrgovic before his professional education had fully caught up.

Benn’s route was different, and Itauma was winning his own showpiece fight last month before being stopped, but the lesson is strikingly similar.

“I think he needs a little bit more patience,” Garcia said – almost identical advice to that offered by Hrgovic to Itauma.

At the weigh-in, Benn said the atmosphere was giving him ‘Ricky Hatton in Vegas’ vibes, which may have been one of the more optimistic claims of fight week.

English accents were difficult to pick out around the fight venue and whatever travelling support he did have was comprehensively drowned out by Garcia’s largely Mexican-American following.

Benn’s relationship with the British public remains complicated.

Some boxing supporters still want answers about his two positive tests for clomifene in 2022. Benn has always denied knowingly taking a banned substance and repeatedly said he had evidence to support his innocence, but much of it was never placed into the public domain.

The WBC’s conclusion that a “highly elevated consumption of eggs” provided a reasonable explanation for one adverse finding handed his rivals permanent ammunition. Eubank slapped Benn with an egg; Garcia ate one at Thursday’s news conference.

There was obvious irony given Garcia’s own positive test and subsequent suspension for ostarine in 2024. The Californian also denies knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Other fighters have managed to move the conversation on by producing defining performances in the ring.

Benn had the chance to do that in Las Vegas. He couldn’t take it.

Some might argue that ‘burst’ is too final.

It would be unfair not to credit Benn’s in-ring evolution, going from a raw novice who used to take beatings in sparring to becoming one of British boxing’s most recognisable fighters.

There will still be major fights available, not least a potential trilogy with Eubank.

But his next decision now carries greater significance.

Benn had said he planned to move up in weight regardless of Saturday’s result.

With no rehydration clause, he looked strikingly bigger in the ring and had posted footage on Friday evening suggesting he was 32lb heavier than at the official weigh-in, although the figure was not independently verified.

That inevitably reignites debate around extreme weight cutting, but there is also a more immediate sporting concern. If Benn struggled so badly with Garcia’s speed and timing, moving up to face naturally bigger men brings its own dangers.

Zuffa Boxing chief Dana White largely sidestepped that question afterwards.

“Let Conor go home, spend some time with his family, enjoy the success he had this year,” White said. “When he’s ready to come back and lets us know, we’ll figure out what’s next for him.”

Asked whether moving up against bigger opponents could prove even more dangerous, White said: “We’ll see. We’ll see how the whole thing figures out.”

Benn did not attend the post-fight news conference, leaving White to face questions about a fighter Zuffa reportedly paid £11m to sign for his initial deal.

Asked whether Benn had still been worth the money, White bluntly said: “Every penny of it.”

But after Garcia exposed such a sizeable gulf, the road to becoming a world champion suddenly looks considerably longer than it did when he arrived in Las Vegas.