Ryan Garcia has his sights set on a fight with Gervonta Davis, and believes that potential rival Devin Haney will have to line up a fight with Teofimo Lopez Jr.
‘Tank’ and Garcia exchanged words on Mike Tyson’s podcast this weekend, and appeared to agree to a fight with one another.
As for Haney, Garcia suggested that he should look for another fight.
Speaking to the SI Boxing podcast, he said: “Devin gotta fight Teofimo Lopez.
“Let Devin do that. Devin’s great, but he gotta be great. That’s his great fight. If he does that, then we can get it on.
“I’ll beat Tank, you go beat Teofimo – if you beat Teofimo, that’s a challenge right there, Teofimo’s a bad man, too – if they get that on, we can have a mega fight as well.”
Garcia mentioned Davis as his preferred fighter after clinching a win over Luke Campbell on Jan. 2, a fight that saw the 22-year-old Californian hit the deck for the first time in his career.
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn had trailed the Garcia vs Campbell fight as a way to decide who would then go on to face WBC champion Haney. However that plan appears to have been put to one side for now.
Garcia denied accusations that he is avoiding Haney out of a sense of fear.
“C’mon now, you really think I’m afraid of Devin Haney?” asked Garcia.
“Devin Haney is a great fighter but he’s not gonna beat me. There’s no way. I’ll find a way to beat him. I wish the best for Devin. I have nothing against him. It’s just how it is, how it’s going to play out. Get ready, man.”
Garcia said that Haney should focus on another fighter, in particular unified champion Lopez.
“Stop complaining about this or that,” he began.
“Go fight Teofimo, go beat him, go beat great, that’s your chance! People are going to give you more credit if you beat him than me, than me versus Tank. The boxing people at least. So go do that. Your chance is here. That’s the message I want to send out to Devin.”