Top Rank head Bob Arum says a fight between his charge, Teofimo Lopez, and Ryan Garcia hinges largely on Garcia’s relationship with his own promoter, Golden Boy.
Garcia, the junior welterweight star from Victorville, Calif., publicly feuded with Golden Boy founder Oscar De La Hoya in the aftermath of Garcia’s defeat to Gervonta Davis in their high-profile fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in April. Davis won by seventh-round knockout.
Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) criticized De La Hoya for being a no-show at the post-fight press conference, which eventually prompted De La Hoya to take his client to task on Twitter. De La Hoya stirred the pot even more when he posted a chummy picture of him posing with Rolando Romero, a rival of Garcia.
Given the volatile situation between Garcia and De La Hoya, Arum understandably feels that any discussion of a potential fight between Lopez, the WBO junior welterweight titlist, and Garcia is premature.
In a recent interview, Arum said he has otherwise received positive indications from both De La Hoya and Golden Boy president Eric Gomez about a Lopez-Garcia fight. (Another issue that would serve to complicate that matchup is the fact that Top Rank and Golden Boy each have their own exclusive networks deals, although Arum did not mention that in this interview; Top Rank with ESPN and Golden Boy with DAZN.)
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve talked to Oscar, I’ve talked to Eric, who are good friends,” Arum told FightHubTV. “They would like to make that fight. It depends on their relationship with Ryan. I don’t want to get into it because I don’t know enough about it. But if they can truly produce Ryan that would be a huge fight for both guys and I would certainly be interested in it. Co-promotion with Golden Boy is something we’ve done very often.”
A former unified lightweight champion, Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) has seemingly resurrected his career after outpointing Josh Taylor over 12 rounds at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, in June, to become a titleholder at 140. Lopez has acted erratically (in and out of the ring) since his upset loss to George Kambosos Jr. in 2021.
Arum is confident that Lopez can be the nonpareil at junior welterweight, so long as he can keep his distractions at bay. Lopez mentioned he was going through a painful divorce in the lead-up to the Taylor fight, which Arum has stated, was what compelled Lopez to initially announce his retirement. Lopez then seemingly reneged on that decision when he informed the WBO that he planned to retain and defend his belt.
“I think if Teo is right (mentally), nobody beats him at 140,” Arum said. “I really believe that. You know, 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.”
Arum has suggested elsewhere that Lopez could be returning to the ring later this year, possibly in December, against either Jose Ramirez or Arnold Barboza Jr.
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.