NEW YORK \u2013 Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez envision a path to reach each other for a likely welterweight title fight in 2026, and the plans begin in earnest Friday night when the pair star on the unique Times Square ring in separate bouts.<\/p>\n
Garcia, 24-1 (20 KOs), has set out a plan to follow his Friday main event against former WBA 140lbs champion Rolly Romero with an early fall rematch against Devin Haney, followed by WBO 140lbs champion Lopez, 21-1 (13 KOs), and a return to meet current WBA lightweight champion Gervonta \u201cTank\u201d Davis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that lineup,\u201d Garcia promoter Oscar De La Hoya told reporters at a Corona Premier fight party near Times Square. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen in boxing, but that lineup is amazing, and that\u2019s the type of lineup that gets you to the Hall of Fame, that when all is said and done, you\u2019re called a legend. I admire that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez, who meets unbeaten top-ranked contender Arnold Barboza Jnr, told BoxingScene he\u2019s casting his vision toward newly unified Jaron \u201cBoots\u201d Ennis, 34-0 (30 KOs), who added the WBA belt to his existing IBF strap on April 12 by stopping Eimantas Stanionis.<\/p>\n
With Garcia fighting Romero for the WBA secondary welterweight belt, the consequences of the DAZN Cinco de Mayo weekend doubleheader that includes Canelo Alvarez\u2019s Saturday bid to reclaim the undisputed super-middleweight title against Cuba\u2019s IBF champion William Scull rise as four-division, unbeaten champion Terence Crawford awaits Alvarez in September.<\/p>\n
The DAZN bundle costs less than $90.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have back-to-back-to-back events on Cinco de Mayo weekend [counting Top Rank\u2019s Naoya Inoue-headlined Sunday card in Las Vegas], this is history in the making and has never been done before,\u201d De La Hoya said at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fight fans \u2026 watching [these fights] are in for an amazing night of fights, and then you have Canelo. In my 45 years, I\u2019ve never seen or been a part of any of this \u2026 DAZN is doing the best thing for the fans by giving them the best fights possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
De La Hoya has three fighters on the Times Square card, including former unified 140lbs champion Jose Ramirez against former two-division champion Haney and Arnold Barboza Jnr, 33, seeking his first belt against Lopez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe Golden Boy is the best at building and positioning our fighters to be in this situation,\u201d De La Hoya said. \u201cFrom there, we can\u2019t fight for you, so you\u2019re inside the ring \u2013 by yourself, one on one \u2013 and it\u2019s up to go in there and shine. Every single time we speak to our fighters, it\u2019s, \u2018Go out there and make a statement. When you make a statement, you live to fight another day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Before he stepped toward Haney\u2019s father-trainer-manager, Bill Haney, over some trash talk at Wednesday\u2019s news conference, De La Hoya criticized the elder Haney\u2019s continued involvement in his son\u2019s career after pursuing a lawsuit that featured a battery claim after the scandal-riddled Garcia fight last year, and then agreeing to fight the gritty Ramirez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot believe Devin Haney has not fired his father,\u201d De La Hoya said. \u201cHe almost ruined his career. Devin Haney\u2019s a nice guy. His father is ruining his potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t understand being off for one year, getting knocked down three times by Ryan Garcia, what his confidence level will be on fight night. Ramirez is looking sharp and he hits like a mule. We\u2019ll see how Devin Haney reacts, and see if he can react to Ramirez\u2019s punches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also speaking at the Corona Premier event, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, who has previously promoted Alvarez and Haney, said he expects the Times Square to be a Garcia showcase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Ryan Garcia makes a statement this weekend,\u201d Hearn said.<\/p>\n
Dreamed up by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, the ring has been positioned on Broadway, covered by a tarp in case of rain, within sight of nearby skyscrapers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could sell out Madison Square Garden [or] the Barclays Center but [Alalshikh] said, \u2018No, I want to create a spectacle,\u2019\u201d Hearn said. \u201cComing on the back of 65,000 [who attended Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn] at Tottenham and Canelo Alvarez 24 hours later in Riyadh for the undisputed [super-middleweight] championship \u2026 it\u2019s turned out to be the most bizarre and unique and exciting seven days I\u2019ve seen in boxing in a long time, and it keeps going on \u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn will promote the Richardson Hitchins-George Kambosos 140lbs title fight June 14 at Madison Square Garden and \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez attempting to unify the super-flyweight division July 19 outside Dallas, a card that DAZN will precede with the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois.<\/p>\n
DAZN also offers a July 12 card in New York featuring the WBC lightweight title fight between champion Shakur Stevenson and De La Hoya\u2019s unbeaten contender William Zepeda.<\/p>\n
On June 28 on DAZN, De La Hoya will promote a doubleheader of Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr and unified cruiserweight champion Gilberto \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez versus Yuniel Dorticos at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure and honor to be working with someone who\u2019s really trying, really proving, really showing the world he wants to be not only a fighter, but a champion,\u201d De La Hoya said of Paul.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s showing the world he has what it takes with the hard work and discipline he\u2019s putting into it. Fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr is a real fight. Former world champion, incredible bloodlines. I strongly feel Jake Paul has his hands full. But \u2018Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez on the undercard means, are we going to see Jake Paul-\u2019Zurdo\u2019 Ramirez in the future?<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of moving parts, great connections, storylines. I truly feel Jake Paul and \u2018Zurdo\u2019 on the same card can lead to a super-fight down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Alvarez-Crawford super-fight, De La Hoya said his former fighter confronts an interesting match in venturing to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanelo fighting at 6 a.m. \u2026 that takes a little bit on your mind, body and soul, but knowing how Canelo gets ready, he should be fine,\u201d De La Hoya said. \u201cFighting a Cuban [Scull], I don\u2019t know much about him, but I know the Cuban style is very difficult, very confusing, and if you don\u2019t have feet and move like you\u2019re in quicksand, it\u2019s going to be a long night. It\u2019s going to be intriguing to watch and see Canelo pull out another victory \u2013 that\u2019s what he does best. Will it be tough? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kinder assessment of Alvarez, who De La Hoya famously feuded with at the 2024 Cinco de Mayo promotion, is intentional after repeatedly telling Alvarez, \u201cF\u2026 you,\u201d in his \u201cclapback\u201d segments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided I\u2019m going to enjoy him while he\u2019s here,\u201d De La Hoya said of Alvarez. \u201cMight as well enjoy it, might as well support him and not be at odds. I have no time to have a beef with anybody.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene\u2019s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers\u2019 Association of America\u2019s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez envision a path to reach each other for a likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,32435,22954,19047,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-67310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-oscar-de-la-hoya","10":"tag-ryan-garcia","11":"tag-saul-canelo-alvarez","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}