Ryan Garcia wants Gervonta Davis or Teofimo Lopez next following sixth round KO
Ryan Garcia is already looking for his next opponent, following his victory this past Saturday over Javier Fortuna.
Following a stellar amateur career seeing him go 215-15, the 23-year-old boxing star made his professional debut in June of 2016 and hasn’t looked back since, going 23-0 thus far into his professional career with 19 knockouts.
This leaves many of us wanting to see him face the very best in the lightweight division. He won the interim WBC lightweight championship against Luke Campbell in January of 2021, but his last two bouts have been non-title fights.
His most recent bout against Fortuna saw him victorious via KO early in round six, following a knockdown in the fourth with a vicious left shovel hook to the body, just like he did to Campbell, and followed it up in the sixth with a nasty left hook to the head.
Garcia stated the following on what he wants next: “100 percent, I felt way better (at 140 lbs), I’m not going back down to 135 (lbs) for nothing. But I will fight ‘Tank’ (Gervonta Davis) next. If ‘Tank’ wants that at 140 (that’s what’s next).
“I’m gonna record all the negotiations so you guys don’t make no headlines saying I’m ducking (that fight). If he wants it, let’s get it. That’s going to give me the respect I deserve, and I’m never afraid. I’m trying to tell you that I have a spirit of competition in me, and you’re gonna see that come out when I fight ‘Tank’ and whoop his ass.
“Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
Garcia then had the following to say at the post-fight press conference:
“I just don’t like that he (Davis) doesn’t make things clear. If he says, ‘see you in December’, make things a little bit clearer. ‘Ryan let’s get it on’. I feel like I’m very transparent in the way I talk. I call him out not because I’m thirsty, I call him out because that’s genuinely what I want to do.
“So, we’ll figure it out with the teams and make it happen. I wanna do this for the people and I know everybody wants this fight to happen.”
Garcia was then asked, should the Davis fight not happen next, who else would he like to fight:
“If that fight for some reason doesn’t happen, which I don’t see that happening, but if it doesn’t happen, then I wanna fight Teofimo Lopez at 140.”
Either of these fights would be incredibly huge!
First, we have Gervonta Davis, who’s the current WBA lightweight champion, but he did go up to 140 lbs in June of last year to claim the WBA super-lightweight championship. Therefore, there’s a lot of intrigue regarding this match up.
Not to mention, Davis is an undefeated knockout artist just like Ryan Garcia, boasting a record of 27-0 with 25 knockouts.
Floyd Mayweather Jr had the following to say in regard to this potential matchup:
“If you want to fight ‘Tank’ at 135, we can make it happen before the end of the year. We can fight in 90 days if you want to, and he’s going to get smoked.
“The fight will not be difficult to make, (but) the fight has to be at 135. ‘Tank’ is the A-side, Ryan hasn’t won a title yet. When he (Davis) hits that boy, he won’t wake up until next year.”
Then we have Teofimo Lopez, the last man to defeat Vasyl Lomachenko, the former WBA, WBO, IBF, & Ring Magazine lightweight champion. He’s coming off a split decision defeat to George Kambosos Jr, which brought his record to 16-1.
But should Lopez win his next fight scheduled against Pedro Campa next month, which will be contested at 140 lbs, this would also be a very fitting match up for the 15-time national champion as well.
Who would you like to see Ryan Garcia face next?
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