By: Sean Crose
“My team told @OscarDeLaHoya we’d fight @RyanGarcia next, and his management turned it down.” So said Teofimo Lopez in a social media post on Saturday. This sort of thing isn’t uncommon in the sport of boxing, though it never ceases to raise some eyebrows. The truth is no one but Lopez ,Garcia and their respective teams know what happened. It’s also worth considering the fact that there tends to be context surrounding these situations. Still, if an agreement truly hasn’t been reached for a potential Lopez-Garcia bout it would be a shame for fans as well as for the sport.
Garcia and Lopez are two of the biggest names in the business right now. Although Garcia lost his last fight, he’s still a feature attraction, one whose roller coaster of a career inside and outside the ring has drawn much attention. He’s fascinated the public. As for Lopez, since his move up to junior welterweight, he hasn’t carried the firepower he did at a lower weight, but he still performed masterfully this May against Arnold Barboza . A match between he and Garcia would certainly be something the public would like to see. Each fighter is brash, talented and generally quite effective in the ring. Lopez has also shown interest in facing dominant Newark, New Jersey native Shakur Stevenson.
Lopez got his start as an extremely hard punching attraction for Top Rank. After winning an upset over the great Vasyl Lomachenko he went on to be stunned in his first title defense against George Kambosos. Since returning, however, Lopez has looked fresh and strong and determined. His win over Barbosa showed that he can do more than simply hit and dominate.. he can fight a skilled, disciplined chess match, as well. He is certainly an interesting fighter to follow, and one who is usually in the win column.
As for Garcia, his career has been up and down lately. Not only did he lose to Rolly Romero last spring, he’s also often in conflict with his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. Thankfully, however, Garcia’s unusual antics outside the ring seem to have quieted down. No one wants to see an athlete, much less a boxer, go through mental torture in public. Hopefully such matters are in the past for Garcia.Without
With that being said, Garcia needs a win, a big win. Whether or not he could get one against the likes of Lopez is a question that makes a fight between the two Interesting.
