Teofimo Lopez says he wants Ryan Garcia after he whoops Shakur Stevenson, reducing him to tears. Earlier today, Ryan called out Teofimo, saying he believes he’s got the arsenal to defeat him.
Ryan Garcia’s Popularity
It has to be tempting for Teofimo (22-1, 13 KOs) to delay his plans for a fight against Shakur (24-0, 11 KOs) in January for the sake of fighting the more popular Ryan Garcia. But Lopez has decided to stick with his original plans to face Stevenson next.
Lopez Vows to Beat Stevenson
“After I whoop on Shakur Stevenson and make him cry like the lil b**** he is, I am calling out Ryan Garcia,” said Teofimo Lopez on X.
Stevenson and Lopez have been going back and forth on social media for the last couple of weeks. Lopez reacted to an initial call out by Stevenson by posting an old sparring video of him getting the better of him. That encouraged the New Jersey native even more to keep calling him out.
Teofimo is counting on being able to land on the evasive Stevenson, who is difficult to hit with headshots. He can be hit to the body, as we saw in his last fight against William Zepeda, but the judges ignore those kinds of shots. They only focus on punches upstairs nowadays. Zepeda landed numerous body shots in the fight, but the scoring was tilted to punches connecting upstairs.
Alalashikh Must Provide Money
It remains to be seen if Teofimo will fight Shakur Stevenson because it still requires that Turki Alalashikh come up with the money. If he doesn’t want to pay Lopez the kind of money he got for his last fight against Arnold Barboza Jr, the fight won’t happen.
Lopez would then take the fight with Ryan Garcia, because that’s one that is guaranteed to do well on PPV. Garcia has 12 million followers on Instagram, and he can count on fans tuning in to watch him.