Teofimo Lopez Sr wasn’t impressed at all with lightweight contender Ryan Garcia’s big seventh-round knockout win over Luke Campbell last Saturday night on DAZN.
In what amounted to be the coming-out party for Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs), who showed that he belongs among the elite at 135.
In response to the highly popular Ryan Garcia’s victory, ESPN Tweeted a photo of him and three other top fighters at 135, titled the “New fab-4.”
Although Teofimo Lopez Jr was among the top four, it looks his dad isn’t pleased with seeing King Ryan join the exclusive group.
The big four at 135:
- Ryan Garcia
- Gervonta Davis
- Teofimo Lopez
- Devin Haney
What’s interesting is that ESPN fighter, Vasily Lomachenko, was left off the list. I guess his recent defeat against Teofimo was enough for him to be excluded. You can argue that a healthy Lomachenko bets everyone on the list.
Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions believes that Ryan is destined to be more popular than his former flagship fighter Canelo Alvarez.
“I strongly feel that Ryan is going to be 10 times bigger than Canelo,” said Oscar De La Hoya to ESPN.
De La Hoya recently predicted that Ryan will be making $700 million from boxing before he retires. He may.
At just 22, King Ryan has 7.9 million followers on social media. You can bet that number will swell to over 10 million once he wins his first world title.
“What grade do I give Ryan? An A? No, no grade. Luke Campbell was a fighter that was nothing like the guy who fought Jorge Linares or Lomachenko,” said Teofimo Lopez Sr to Badlefhook in devaluing Ryan’s biggest win of his career against Campbell.
“That was a washed-up Luke Campbell. And Luke still dropped Ryan,” continued Lopez Sr.
I wouldn’t say that Campbell, 33, is past his best. He looked good against Ryan and bigger physically than he did when he fought Lomachenko and Jorge Linares.
If anything, it might be time for Campbell to move up to 140 because he’s filled out since fights against Linares and Lomachenko.
It was a good learning fight for Ryan to work on his defense and mix his punches from head to body. The way that Ryan responded to his trainer, Eddy Reynoso’s instructions, was enviable.
He did exactly what Reynoso told him to, and it resulted in him dominating Campbell from the third round until stopping him with a body shot in the seventh.
“I said that Luke was a loser, in that losing was already in his head,” said Teofimo Sr. “And Ryan fought and beat him. I don’t know what him and his guys were doing after the win, they were so happy.”
“Don’t come over here and tell me he’s the king of boxing,” said Lopez Sr.
Ryan’s popularity is what makes him the king of the 135-lb division. Teofimo Sr needs to get a clue and start seeing the writing on the wall.
Ryan is the #1 guy now at 135, and he’s already arguably more popular than unified IBF/WBA/WBC Franchise/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo Jr.
It doesn’t matter that Ryan hasn’t won a world title yet at lightweight. He’s still viewed as the most popular guy in the division.
“These other fighters to start fighting real guys, start showing us they deserve to get a fight with us, the same way we did to get at Lomachenko,” said Teofimo Sr.
That comment from Teofimo Sr sounds like an elitist, and he needs to come down to earth.
If he wants to set up hurdles that other fighters have to jump over for them to get a fight against Lopez Jr (16-0, 12 KOs), he’s going to stunt his career.