Ryan Garcia names 3 fighters he wants next: Rolly, Cruz or Teofimo

Ryan Garcia names 3 fighters he wants next: Rolly, Cruz or Teofimo
By Jeff Sorby - 05/30/2023 - Comments

Ryan Garcia named the three fighters that he’ll be choosing from for his next fight this Summer.

The fighters are as follows:

  • Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
  • Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz
  • Teofimo Lopez.

The 5’5″ Cruz would seem like the least likely to get a fight against Ryan because he’s built along the same lines as Gervonta Davis, he’s an excellent body puncher, he hits hard, he can take a shot, and he’s going put unrelenting pressure on Kingry.

You can’t compare the performances of Pitbull Cruz against Tank Davis to that of Ryan’s poor effort because there’s no comparison. Pitbull gave Gervonta pure hell for 12 rounds, forcing him to move around the ring to keep from getting hit.

WBA light welterweight champion Rolly (15-1, 13 KOs) won’t be an option for Ryan unless he pays his mandatory challenger Ohara Davies a step aside because the WBA ordered the Rolly-Davies fight today to have next.

Ryan (23-1, 19 KOs) says for ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (24-2-1, 17 KOs) to be an option, he’ll need to come up to 140 to face him, which he’ll likely be willing to do for the right price.

Initially, Ryan said his interest in a fight with former unified lightweight champion Teofimo (18-1,13 KOs) depended on him winning his fight against WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor on June 10th, but he later said that he would be interested in fighting him “either way.” In other words, Ryan would want to fight Teofimo even if he loses to Taylor.

Of that bunch, Rolly is the likely one that Ryan will fight next, provided he pays his WBA mandatory Ohara Davies (25-2, 18 KOs) a step aside.

Ryan obviously wants the WBA 140-lb belt that Rolly has because, with that title, he can use it as bait to call out Gervonta Davis to get him to come up to light welterweight for a rematch.

Ryan made $15 million for the Tank Davis fight last April, and he’s not going to make that kind of money fighting any 140-pounders; frankly, most of them would beat him.

Teofimo seems to be on the downside of his career, but he can still punch hard and has fast hands. He’d be dangerous for Ryan because he would catch him with a shot at some point and put him down on the canvas. The saying goes, ‘Once a quitter, always a quitter.’ If Ryan quit once against Tank, he’ll sure quit against Teofimo if he gets hit hard, and he’ll be tagged many times by huge shots.