Ryan Garcia Admits He Wanted a Different Fight Instead of Haney Rematch

In April 2024, Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) handed Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) his first professional defeat, dropping him three times en route to a majority decision win. However, the result was later overturned following Garcia’s failed drug test for ostarine.

On May 2nd, under the bright lights of Times Square in New York City, Garcia and Haney will make their welterweight debuts — Ryan against Rolando Romero and Devin against Jose Ramirez. Should both fighters emerge victorious, a rematch between them could take place later this year.

But Ryan has now revealed that he's not particularly interested in facing Haney again. Instead, the American has his sights set on WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez (21-1, 13 KOs), who’s also set to fight on the Times Square card — against Arnold Barboza.

“To be honest, there shouldn’t even be a rematch. I’m only doing it for Turki. That fight wasn’t close. I beat him easy,” Garcia said. “I wanted to fight Teofimo. That’s why we always go back and forth, throwing jabs at each other. He’s the one I really wanted for my next big fight.

I also wanted to fight Isaac Cruz, but Pitbull turned it down.

No trainer can save Haney — that’s the problem. Trainers don’t fight for you.

Teofimo looks sharp right now, but life has a funny way of humbling you real quick. If everything lines up, that could be the biggest fight of 2026. But hey, we’ve seen Kambosos beat him, and Barboza isn’t a pushover. Neither is Ramirez. You can’t count those guys out. Anything can happen,” said Garcia.