clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia both say they want Teofimo Lopez in 2021

Two other top young names at 135 say they’re definitely gunning for the division’s new kingpin.

Devin Haney Media Workout Photo by Jack Thomas/Getty Images

With Teofimo Lopez upsetting Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday night, we could see a new era ushered in for the lightweight division that could produce some dynamite fights between some great young talents.

If Lopez (16-0, 12 KO) stays in the division that is.

In his post-fight interview, Lopez, 23, floated the idea of moving up to 140 going forward, having already won three of the four major titles and believing well enough that he has, in fact, fully unified the division as undisputed champion. (He hasn’t, but nobody really cares that much.)

But if he stays at 135, yeah, there’s some intriguing stuff that could be done, and two of the division’s other young guns have already openly said they want to fight him next year.

WBC titleholder Devin Haney (21-0, 15 KO) wants to meet in what would actually be an undisputed fight with no technical arguments about it:

And Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KO) wants Lopez, too:

As Garcia notes, he has a major league step-up fight against Luke Campbell on Dec. 5, and Haney is set to defend against ancient Yuriorkis Gamboa on Nov. 7.

But if Garcia and Haney both win, yeah, these would be super intriguing fights to make next year. There is also the chance, since Garcia-Campbell is for a shot at the belt Haney has, that we could, in theory, do Haney-Garcia, and the winner of that gets Teofimo.

That, of course, supposes Lopez stays at 135 long enough for that to happen, and that’s not a guarantee. All of this will sort itself out, but the young guys are gunning for one another, at least on Twitter.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bad Left Hook Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of all your global boxing news from Bad Left Hook