By Sam Volz: Teofimo Lopez says a “desperate” for money Ryan Garcia sent him a DM message after his victory over WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor last Saturday night, trying to set up a fight between them.
Teofimo says he read the message from Ryan and then promptly deleted it. Teo claims that the recently beaten 24-year-old Ryan Garcia is just trying to get a “payday,” but he’s not interested.
If Teofimo doesn’t take Ryan Garcia up on his offer, he could one day live to regret passing up on this money-making opportunity when he gets to his father’s age and sees things more clearly.
According to Teofimo (19-1, 13 KOs), he doesn’t want to fight and be a slave and make less money than his opponent. Ryan has over 11 million Instagram followers, and he would be the one bringing in most of the PPV buys if he were to fight Teofimo.
Although Teofimo is popular in New York City, he’s not nationally a huge star like Gervonta Davis, and he doesn’t possess a substantial following on social media like Ryan Garcia.
Unlike Ryan, Teofimo hasn’t put in a lot of hard work posting on Instagram daily, and he doesn’t have the Hollywood looks or the same charisma.
“Ryan DMd me and everything, Bro’s desperate for a payday. He DMd me after the Josh Taylor fight. I deleted it,” said Teofimo Lopez to Fighthype about Ryan Garcia contacting him, begging for a fight after his victory over WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor last Saturday night in New York.
“Ryan just said that if I’m looking forward to it, ‘We could make some good money, and we can make the fight happen.’
“No, man, because all the people that follow him. At one point forward pay-per-view buys were mainly from Ryan’s side, not from Tank, and that’s all from the Youtubers and young kids. It’s just the casual fans.
“It’s like you guys don’t understand. I think you guys do. I’m not going to be that guy that makes other people more money than I make. They don’t even consider Ryan Garcia Latino.
“I’ve got six or eight months left with them, and anyone can buy that contract just like Floyd did with 750K, and Floyd did buy his contract out. It was Al Haymon,” said Teofimo when asked how much time he had left in his contract with Top Rank.
“But I’m retired at the moment, and I like it. Do you know why I retired and why I like it, and it feels good? Because I don’t have to deal with the s**t no more.
“It comes to a point where you’re this great at this young age. There are two things that can happen. You’re six feet under, or you go and be a slave. Not broke. Broke is not slavery. Slavery is when someone is telling you where you got to go, what you got to do, what you got to be, and if they say, ‘Sit down,’ you got to sit down.
“If they say, ‘Get on your knees,’ you got to get on your knees. I can’t be that person. That’s slavery. I can’t be that person.
“My father is, ‘Let’s go get this.’ I’m like, ‘I want to be a trainer. I want to be a promoter, and I really want to be a commentator.’ I want to express those things and put my food on the door in the boxing industry literally.’
“Not just from a fighter’s standpoint and do all this Mandingo fighting. I’m tired of all that. I want to be the guy that watches the Mandingo fighter’s fight,” said Teofimo.
