Bob Arum says he wants to put a fight together between his fighter WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez and Ryan Garcia. He feels that would be massive and could occur early next year.
Arum isn’t sure what the current situation is between Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions on whether they could produce him for the fight.
Ryan is interested in fighting for a world title, but he’s talked about wanting to fight WBA 140-lb champion Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. That would be a good one for Ryan to take for him to capture the WBA title and then face Teofimo in a unification contest in early 2024.
Ryan is coming off of a seventh round knockout loss to Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis last April in a massive fight. He reportedly made $20 million, which is a ton of money for a fighter that has never won or even fought for a world title.
Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs) recently dethroned WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor last June in a dominant performance. Teo totally schooled the former undisputed champion, Taylor, making it look easy.
Ryan would have to up his game for him to have a chance of beating Teofimo because, based on their recent performances, Teo will make easy work of Kingry.
“Yeah, I’ve talked to Oscar [De La Hoya], and I’ve talked to Eric [Gomez], who were good friends, and they would like to make that fight it depends on their relationship with Ryan,” said Bob Arum to Fight Hub TV about his interest in matching WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez against Ryan Garcia.
“I don’t want to get into it because I don’t know enough about it, but if they [Golden Boy Promotions] can truly produce Ryan, that would be a huge fight for both guys, and I would certainly be interested in doing a co-promotion with Golden Boy.
“It’s something that we’ve done very often. I think if Teo is right, nobody beats him at 140. I really believe that. If Teo is distracted with personal problems, then Garcia, who really punches hard, can win by knockout.
“So again, when you’re dealing with fighters, you don’t know what you’re going to get from fight to fight with a lot of them.
“We want to bring Teo back this year and then make him a real big fight next year. He proved in the Josh Taylor fight that he still has it, and he’s a top, top fighter, and the public wants to see him again.
“I didn’t buy it on his part, but he was having certain personal problems, which he believed would go away if he announced his retirement,” said Arum about Teofimo.
“As far as I know, the relationship between Teo and Top Rank is very good. I don’t see any animosity or anything like that,” said Arum.
