Ryan Garcia says he will fight Teofimo Lopez when he returns to the ring this year after his suspension expires. That’s what Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, says.
Garcia Advances
Oscar said there’s no point in Ryan fighting with Devin Haney again because he already “destroyed” him. He says the fight he wants for Garcia is WBO welterweight champion Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs), who has no opponent after choosing not to defend against Subriel Matias.
Teofimo’s career came to a halt after his loss to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021. Although he captured the WBO 140-lb title from a washed-up Josh Taylor in 2023, he looked terrible in fights against Steve Claggett, Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin. .
It is obvious that Top Rank guessed wrong with Teofimo and should have dropped him after his loss to Kambosos instead of giving him an extension. He hasn’t shown any improvement since that loss.
Garcia says he would “take it down” with Haney, but would need to drop his lawsuit against him. Haney hasn’t said if he will, but his recent comments suggest he won’t. Unfortunately, that leaves him high and dry, but he still has Turki Al-Shiekh. I still believe in him and will help him this year.
If Devin loses once or twice this year, Turki will have a clue and probably give up on him. He understands that it is not worth artificially pressing with time and money. It would be better for Turki to give up on Haney sooner rather than later because it is a lost cause.
“I want his A**” – Garcia
“I’ll be ready for whatever happens. It looks like I’m going to fight Teofimo Lopez. So, it’s good. I saw it today. It’s a little weird, but other than that, I’m ready to hit his**,” said Ryan Garcia to secondsout on him fight Teofimo Lopez later.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to wait and see,” Ryan said when asked about his fight with Teofimo. “But after fighting him, I will be the first to fight all three of the so-called “Four Kings”. I am the only one of them who have fought all of them. Tank, Devin and Teofimo Lopez.
“I’m out there, actually, throwing with everybody. It seems like everybody’s scared or whatever’s going on here
“Not for me,” Ryan said when asked if it was important to fight Devin Haney again so that he could get revenge because of his victory that was tainted and brought by the New York State Athletic Commission because of his positive drug test. “The fight with Teofimo Lopez would be as satisfying as me doing a rematch with Devin.”
Ryan would get a lot more credit for beating Teofimo than he would from Haney at this point, since he already hit the brakes. He beat Haney all over the ring from the first round.
Few people will give Haney much of a chance in a rematch with Garcia after the way he beat him last April.
The boxing public would be very interested in a Garcia vs. Teofimo fight because the two have never fought before. The WBO 140-lb belt would be at stake, and Teofimo can do his part to help promote the fight. In Devin’s case, he relies on his father, Bill, to do much of the work to create interest. That does not work well.
“Again, I’m not saying I didn’t. I threw in with him (Haney) again, but they have to stop all this nonsense (dropping the lawsuit) before we even get here,” Garcia said.
It doesn’t appear that Haney and Bill plan to abandon the process. They seem to be dug in and likely to fight to the bitter end with their outfit, even if doing so would be shooting themselves in the foot.
