Teofimo Lopez Backs De La Hoya Over Romero Beef
Teofimo Lopez has backed Oscar De La Hoya after Rolando Romero hit back at the promoter for not being serious about making a fight with Ryan Garcia.
Garcia was in talks to fight Romero after Ryan pulled out of negotiations to face Devin Haney. It was increasingly likely that Garcia would have fought Romero. Then De La Hoya to confirm that negotiations had broken down.
De La Hoya stated that Romero had priced himself out of a fight, as a bout with Jose Ramirez was then being teased. Garcia rejected the idea of fighting Ramirez, leaving him no immediate alternative. Romero then slammed De La Hoya and Garcia for trying to go behind his back to fight someone else.
Romero Reacts
“F— Princess Ryan Garcia, f— Oscar De La Fishnets, and f— DAZN, the s—tiest streaming network out there, for wasting my time and more important wasting the entire boxing world’s time.
“It’s disgusting to see how you guys do business, then trying to go behind my back offering [Isaac Cruz] an offer, then claiming I [priced myself out]. Y’all f—ed up. Now it’s Rolly vs Pitbull on Amazon Prime, the largest network in boxing history. This fight is an explosion,” Romero said
In response to the controversy, Lopez shared some sparring footage showing Romero being dominated by Lopez
Lopez Reacts
“Don’t worry (Oscar De La Hoya) if it comes it it I’ll handle this fake champ like I didn’t back in 2017,” Lopez said
Those comments are understandable, given Lopez’s reaction to the Garcia-Romero bout when it was first entertained. He praised Garcia for making a smart business move. He would have the chance to fight Romero for the WBA Junior Welterweight Title in a fight that was deemed less risky than taking on Haney.
Doing so also allows him to win a belt and then make a Haney fight, which would be much bigger given that it would be for a unification. Now that the Romero fight is off the table, Garcia cannot return for the Haney fight without being subjected to massive scrutiny.
Options
The only other unification fights on the table are Lopez and Subriel Matias. But they are risky fights as another loss for Garcia could derail his star power further after having been knocked out by Gervonta Davis. Looking back, Garcia missed a huge chance with the Romero fight.
“It’s a smart move. It’s a really smart move for Ryan Garcia. I’ll say that. You know, I think that he needs something. He needs to carry a belt because it does matter. Belts do matter in the sense of percentage of what we get as our payout. I mean, but there’s ways to move around it with the pay-per-view [revenue]. Something musta happened with the Haneys. Obviously, we saw Ryan Garcia [and] Mayweather running together, so anything can happen, really. It’s part of boxing,” Lopez stated
Either way, it is crucial for Garcia and Romero moving forward. Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com.
