‘Ryan Garcia destroyed his image’: Lopez Sr reacts to Haney’s lawsuit
Teofimo Lopez believes Devin Haney is attempting to restore his image through litigation but doesn’t believe he wants to really fight his son.
Teofimo Lopez Sr took some time to talk to Fight Hub TV about a number of topics, including the recent news of Devin Haney suing Ryan Garcia. As Lopez Sr views it, Haney is attempting to restore his image both in and out of the ring, but he’s not at all buying into the notion that Haney is willing to fight his son, Teofimo Lopez Jr. Here’s some excerpts of what Lopez Sr had to say.
Teofimo Lopez Sr on his son’s next move
“Don’t worry, my son is going to fight real soon. We’re just doing negotiations with our lawyers and everybody else and trying to keep up this dynasty that we have created with Top Rank and everybody else.”
On if there’s any truth to rumors that his son could fight Devin Haney
“I don’t believe that. You can’t have a guy that comes from getting ripped apart the way Ryan did to him and come and fight my son. They never wanted to fight us. When my son was going to let go one of the belts he wanted to fight somebody else for the belt, for the vacant belt. And when my son told him ‘I’m not leaving the belt, I want to fight you,’ he didn’t want to fight us.
“So you’re coming out of a fight where you got really, really beat up and everybody knows your weaknesses now — you’re going to tell me you want to fight my son? I really don’t believe that. But could I entertain it? Of course I can. If the money’s right and everything’s right, we’ll make it happen.”
On his thoughts about Haney suing Garcia for battery
“I think that Devin Haney is just trying to play chess and trying to put the right pawns on the right spots so he can get the best out of what had happened to him and his image, because Ryan Garcia destroyed his image...the beating started from the beginning.
“So a Ryan fight, we want it. A Crawford fight, we definitely want it for legacy.”
On what he thought about Crawford’s performance against Madrimov
“Horrible. He didn’t know when to throw when he was feinting. Like the feinting just destroyed him completely and that’s when I saw a lot of weaknesses and figured out — ‘cause he’s got long arms and he’s got a long reach and the way he throws his punches, they’re always long and they can catch you in the body, they can catch with an uppercut, they can catch you with a left hook, can catch you with a right hand.
“So he’s a very dangerous fighter to fight with if he’s going to connect those punches. But if you keep on feinting and feinting and him not knowing when you’re going to come, especially a strong guy like my son that has experience...”