Ryan Garcia does not believe that Teofimo Lopez defeated Lomachenko convincingly
Within the lightweight division there wages a very entertaining struggle for supremacy. The 135-pound weight class has garnered so much attention because of the number of talented individuals competing there. Among them, two of the finest are Teofimo “Take Over” Lopez (16-0, 12 KO’s) and Ryan “KingRy” Garcia (21-0, 18 KO’s). Lopez argues that he is the king of the hill because he owns the WBA, WBO and IBF world lightweight titles.
Take Over strong-armed the IBF strap from Richard “RC” Commey by way of second-round knockout. He later earned a unanimous decision win over Vasiliy “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KO’s) to obtain the WBA and WBO titles. Seeing as how Loma was widely regarded as the best in the division, Lopez now believes that honor is bestowed to him. Garcia feels very differently about the matter.
PUMP THE BRAKES
Ever since his victory over Lomachenko, Lopez has been on something of a high horse. He has become very fond of saying that his fellow 135-pounders need to do more if they want to face him. Take Over has also remained extremely inflexible on granting Hi-Tech a rematch. In his opinion, he so thoroughly whooped him that there is no point in a do-over. On this notion, KingRy believes that Lopez is living his own self-created fantasy land as he told Fight Hype.
“I respect that you beat Lomachenko, I respect that you beat him, great job! Respect. Did you destroy him? In my honest eyes, no you didn’t. You didn’t beat him like I would’ve wanted to beat him. I would want to knock him out. You know, that’s how I feel good about a victory – knocking you out or just outclassing you nasty, you know what I mean? Which I honestly don’t think that he did. I think that he did good and I think that he fought a pretty good fight.”
“…[Lomachenko] He thought that Lopez may be a harder puncher than even them, so he was gun shy in the beginning, which makes sense. But then once he figured out it really ain’t as bad as it seems, he started beating him up. Teofimo was getting beat up a couple of rounds, like bang, bang, bang! His head looked like the fierce reflex bag. His eyes were all swelled up, he was beaten up. So I don’t like when he tries to make it seem like he destroyed Lomachenko. And then to say that 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, ‘why would you give him a rematch?’ If you a real man, like be a man, you didn’t beat him down! You did alright but he does deserve a rematch in a way!”
GET ON MY LEVEL!
Garcia also took issue with Lopez trying to discredit him by saying that he was merely a social media creation. Aside from believing that Take Over is getting more than a little arrogant, KingRy is convinced that Lopez needs to grow is own brand!
“The fact that he would say that is nuts to me. Do you know how long I have been getting that? That you’re only big on social media, but everywhere I go I get stopped! 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. Like, don’t lie that we’re not hot. You’re kind of hot. I mean you’re scratching the surface. To be honest, Teofimo is far behind, FAR behind getting to the level we’re at, you know what I mean?”
Given how vocal and consistent both are on social media, these remarks are sure to fire up a healthy back and forth. It will be interesting to see how Lopez responds to Garcia’s sentiments.
By: Bakari Simpson
