Ryan Garcia dropped a hint today on X, telling his followers that he’s looking forward to them seeing who he’ll fight next.
Lopez Next?
Garcia says fans won’t be able to say he takes “weak fights ever.” Teofimo Lopez is rumored to be the potential next opponent for Ryan (24-1, 20 KOs), and that would be a big fight. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya said in an interview last weekend that he wants Teofimo (21-1, 13 KOs) for Kingry and wasn’t interested in a rematch for him against Devin Haney.
Oscar says that Ryan had already “destroyed” Haney, and he felt Lopez had more to offer. Teofimo resembled a Brooklyn Vampire in his garb last Saturday at the Ring Awards in London. The only missing thing was a black cape and a set of fangs for Lopez.
A fight between Teofimo and Ryan Garcia would have a lot of trash talk to create interest. It would be like a giant tsunami. That’s what Ryan needs for his next fight when he returns from his one-year suspension for testing positive for the banned PED Osctarine after beating Haney on April 20th.
It was thought that Ryan would give Haney a rematch next, especially after all the talking that Devin did last Friday and Saturday. However, Garcia’s post on X today suggests that it’s going to be someone a lot more important that fans will be interested in seeing. That rules out Haney because his stock has dropped to next to nothing. Teo is still popular, and there would be interest from fans in seeing Ryan fight him.
Teofimo is coming off a 12-round unanimous decision win over Steve Claggett on June 29th in Miami. It wasn’t a good performance, but he may have had problems getting motivated for that fight because he faced a journeyman with seven defeats.
