Top Rank’s Bob Arum is aiming to make a fight between Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez for 2024.
The two fighters are going through contrasting fortunes. Garcia is coming off the first loss of his career after he was stopped by Gervonta Davis in the seventh round. Since the fight was at 135 pounds, Garcia moved up to 140 as he hired Derrick James as his trainer in a revamp of his training set up. The boxer will face Oscar Duarte on December 2nd, 2023, after which a world title shot could open up.
As for Lopez, the boxer became a two-weight world champion after beating Josh Taylor to secure the WBO junior welterweight belt. And Garcia’s aim of winning his first world title would fit in line with Lopez’s desire to fight for bigger paydays. Garcia’s massive social media following which is over 10 million on Instagram, coupled with his commercial power that resulted in over 1.2 million PPV buys for the Davis fight, could prove attractive for Lopez.
“We’re hoping to get that fight done sometime in February. In the meantime, [Ryan] Garcia has a fight [against Oscar Duarte on December 2nd], but I don’t think there’s going to be that much difficulty a Teofimo-Ryan fight together for the end of February,” Arum said
The response on social media towards the prospective fight was positive. Many boxing fans felt the bout would throw up an intriguing match-up, given Garcia’s new training set up and his desire to face the best at 140 pounds.
Reaction
Hell Yeah!
And props for @RyanGarcia jumping right back in the deep end with a shark like @TeofimoLopez ! The sport needs more true warriors who don’t sit back and collect meaningless wins, but rather dare to be great and make the fights fans want to see a reality!!! 🥊🥊🥊
— A Round of Boxing (@aroundofboxing) November 15, 2023
Ryan wants the smoke
— Gabriel Moreno (@GodlyKakashi) November 15, 2023
🔥
— Eric (@EricCasillas15) November 15, 2023