By Dan Ambrose: Bob Arum is interested in matching Teofimo Lopez against Ryan Garcia, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, or Arnold Barbosa, Jr. next. Those guys are the three potential opponents for Lopez, according to Top Rank boss Arum.
If King Ryan (20-0, 17 KOs) defeats Luke Campbell in their rescheduled fight on December 19th, Arum states that he’d like to set up a fight between him and Teofimo.
Arum says the fighter he’s not looking to match against IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs) next is WBC champ, Devin Haney, as he views him still as unproven.
Bob wants to wait and see Haney (25-0, 15 KOs) beat a credible opponent to show that he’s for real before he’ll consider matching Teofimo against him. Arum doesn’t view Haney’s recent win over 38-year-old Yuriorkis Gamboa as a good enough victory to prove himself.
Tank Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) would need to move back up to 135 for him to have a chance of fighting Teofimo, according to Arum.
Ryan Garcia and Tank are options for Teofimo Lopez
“He has a mandatory with this Australian kid Arnold Barbosa, Jr. I’d like him to fight, if Ryan Garcia beats [Luke] Campbell, that would be a great fight to make,” said Bob Arum. “Tank Davis is a good possibility if Davis wants to go to 135.
Those are the major fights that he can do. He only wants major fights. He’s not going to screw around. No, because Haney has got to prove himself. It’s all bull s***. Let him fight someone that’s real and then match him against Teofimo Lopez.
“Haney vs. Teofimo Lopez is not a fight that is going to generate revenue at this point,” Arum continued. “I don’t know how good he’s going to be or how good he [Haney] is. I’m saying he’s got to prove himself. [Ryan] Garcia hasn’t proven himself, but if he beats Campbell, he’s proven himself.
“Let’s see. It doesn’t run away. Let’s see how it develops, right? I’m sure the Haney people are resourceful enough where they’ll get a decent opponent where they’ll prove that Haney belongs. Beating [Yuriorkis] Gamboa at this point proves nothing.
“Yes, to make it economically feasible,” Arum said when asked if Haney needs to beat someone like Campbell to put himself in the position to take on Teofimo. “That’s obviously not the case [of Haney being ignored because he’s too dangerous for Teofimo]. He’s a young kid. One step at a time,” Arum said.
Haney, 21, won’t like it when he learns that Arum is saying that he still needs to prove himself before he’ll consider making the fight with Teofimo.
Devin thinks his recent win over Gamboa was enough to prove himself, but not as far as Arum is concerned. Haney has got to do better than that if he wants to share the ring with Teofimo, who is coming off a big win over Vasily Lomachenko.