Ryan Garcia says his plan B option is a fight against Teofimo Lopez next if he can’t negotiate a fight against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for the end of the year.
Garcia looked an outstanding last Saturday night, dispatching Javier Fortuna in six rounds in his second fight in the 140-lb division at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.
Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) was so pleased with the results of his performance against former WBA super featherweight champion Fortuna (37-4-1, 26 KOs) that he’s decided to stay at 140 permanently and NEVER return to the 135-lb division.
Garcia’s stance of not returning to 135 may ultimately work against him when it comes to getting the mega-fight against the 5’5″ Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis because he and his management at Mayweather Promotions aren’t going to react positively to Ryan speaking in absolutes, setting conditions for a fight between them.
Considering Ryan’s decision not to come back to lightweight, his best bet for a fight could be against former unified 135-lb champion Teofimo (16-1, 12 KOs) because he fights at 140 now and has a tune-up scheduled for August 13th against Pedro Campa.
As long as Teofimo’s promoters at Top Rank believe a fight between him and Ryan Garcia is A). winnable and B). well-paying, they’ll be receptive to putting it together.
“If that fight for some reason doesn’t happen, which I don’t see that happening, but if it doesn’t happen, I want to fight Teofimo Lopez at 140,” said Ryan Garcia at the post-fight press conference last Saturday, letting the media know what his plan B is if he can’t get Tank Davis next.
Teofimo looked like a mental basket case in his recent loss against George Kambosos last November. Given the way Teofimo crumbled mentally against a very average fighter in Kambosos, there’s no way on earth his promoters at Top Rank are going to put him in with Ryan Garcia.
Ryan, 23, seems to be taking a professional wrestling approach to hyping his hoped-for fight against Tank Davis.
Kingry’s choosing to go over-the-top with Rolly-esque type inane predictions; he’s trying to shock boxing fans into paying attention to his daily call-outs of the unbeaten superstar Tank Davis.
Ryan wouldn’t have to take this approach to drive interest in a fight between him and Gervonta (27-0, 25 KOs) if he had solid wins against credible opponents on his resume.
If Ryan had victories over Vasyl Lomachenko, Devin Haney, Isaac Cruz, and Shakur Stevenson, for example, it wouldn’t be necessary for him to make hyperbolic statements in the way that he’s repeatedly doing on a daily basis.
It’s going to be tiresome soon to listen to Ryan talking nonsense about Tank Davis, making him sound desperate for a cash-out. Again, none of this would be necessary if Ryan had victories over credible opposition on his resume instead of fodder-level fighters like Emmanuel Tagoe and Javier Fortuna.
