During a conversation with FightHype, lightweight star Ryan Garcia responds to some recent comments made by Teofimo Lopez that the other three of the ‘new four kings’ in the division — namely Garcia, Gervonta Davis, and Devin Haney — aren’t really ‘hot’ in boxing.
Obviously Garcia takes umbrage about comments questioning his stardom, and gives his take on Lopez’s recent win over Vasiliy Lomachenko.
On Lopez’s latest social media comments
“(Lopez) goes ‘they hot on social media, I’m hot in real life.’ Like, what are you talking about, man?! Like I got respect for you, you a great fighter, you won that fight with Lomachenko...but the fact that you would say that is nuts to me.
“I just beat Luke Campbell so you can’t really say anything about my boxing ability. Like, don’t make a lie. It’s one thing to say something but don’t lie. It don’t sit right with me. Don’t lie. Don’t lie that we’re not hot. You’re kinda hot, I mean, you’re scratching the surface. To be honest, Teofimo is far behind, far behind getting to the level that we’re at.
“Respect, you beat (Lomachenko). Great job. Respect. Did you destroy him? In my honest eyes, no you didn’t. You didn’t beat him like I would want to beat him. I would want to knock him out. That’s how I feel good about a victory, knocking you out, or just outclassing you nasty — which I honestly don’t believe he did. I thought he did good, I thought he fought a pretty good fight, but nothing that (really impressed me).”
On how Garcia viewed the Loma-Lopez bout
“I see that Lomachenko just felt gun-shy for some reason. I mean, he got hurt twice. He got knocked down by Linares and got hurt by Luke Campbell. So in that he thought that Lopez may be an even harder puncher than them, so he was gun-shy in the beginning — which makes sense — but then when he figured out it ain’t really as bad it seems, he started beating him up.
“Like Teofimo was getting beat up a couple of the rounds. Like bang bang bang bang bang — his head looked like the Fierce Reflex bag...his eyes were all swelled up, was beaten up. So I don’t like when he tries to make it seem like he destroyed Lomachenko. And then to say ‘oh, he don’t deserve no rematch.’ Man, you didn’t beat his ass! Excuse my language but you didn’t whoop him down to the point where it was like undeniable, like ‘why would you give him a rematch?’
“Be a man, man. You didn’t beat him down. You did alright, but he does deserve a rematch in a way. If you don’t want to give it to him, I’ll take him. But I’ll be going to knock him out. I’ll make it real clear I’m not here to play...”