Ryan Garcia says he will fight Teofimo Lopez when he returns to the ring this year after his suspension expires. This agrees with what Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, is saying.
Garcia moves on
Oscar said that there is no point in Ryan fighting 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 is unopposed after opting not to defend against Subriel Matias.
Teofimo’s career has been stalled since his loss to George Kambosos Jr. 2021. Although he took the WBO 140 lb title from a washed-up Josh Taylor in 2023, he looked awful in fights against Steve Claggett, Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin.
It’s obvious that Top Rank got Teofimo wrong and should have dropped him after the Kambosos loss instead of extending him. He hasn’t shown any improvement since that defeat.
Garcia states that he would “break up” with Haney, but would have to drop the lawsuit he filed 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. He still believes in him and will help him this year.
If Devin loses once or twice, it will be interesting to see if the Turks give up on him and realize he’s not worth artificially backing up with time and money.
“I’m going to shout the fuck out of him” – Garcia
“I will be ready for whatever happens. It looks like I’ll be fighting Teofimo Lopez. So that’s good. I saw him today. He’s a little weird, but other than that, I’m ready to get used to his cu**c,” Ryan Garcia told Secondsout about his next fight against Teofimo Lopez.
“I don’t know. You have to wait and see,” Ryan said when asked about the fight with Teofim. “But after I fight him, I will be the first to fight all three of the so-called ‘Four Kings’. I am the only one of them who fought against all of them. Tank, Devin and Teofimo Lopez.
“I’m here and I’m basically throwing it with everyone. Everyone seems to be scared or whatever is going on here
“Not for me,” Ryan said when asked if it was important to fight Devin Haney again so he could be vindicated since his victory was tainted and stripped by the New York State Athletic Commission due to his positive drug test. A fight against Teofimo Lopez would be just as satisfying as a rematch with Devin.”
Ryan would get a lot more credit for beating Teofim than Haney at this point, because he beat Devin. Few people will give Haney much of a chance in a Garcia rematch after the way he beat him last April.
The boxing public would be very interested in a match between Garcia and Teofim because the two have never fought before. The WBO 140lb belt would be on the line 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 generate interest. That doesn’t work either.
»Again, I’m not saying I wouldn’t. I would throw myself with him [Haney] again, but they have to stop with all this nonsense [drop the lawsuit] before I even go in,” Garcia said.
It doesn’t appear that Haney and Bill plan to drop the lawsuit. They seem to be dug in and will likely fight to the bitter end with their suit, even if it means shooting themselves in the foot.
