With a desire to face the winner in a unification match, Ryan Garcia has offered his prediction for Rolando Romero’s WBA welterweight title defence against Teofimo Lopez.
The pair will collide at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on August 22, with Romero entering his first fight since unanimously outpointing Garcia in May 2025.
Back then, the result came as a sizable upset, especially with ‘Rolly’ scoring a second-round knockdown to widen the margin of his victory.
The American was then upgraded from ‘Regular’ to full WBA champion and, despite his inactivity, has been afforded the chance to make a voluntary defence of his title.
This will arrive against Lopez who, following his unanimous decision defeat to Shakur Stevenson in January, has moved up to 147lbs and is bidding to become a three-weight world champion.
And despite the comprehensive nature of his loss to Stevenson, ‘The Takeover’ has been made a clear favourite against Romero, whose achievements pale in comparison to his wins over the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko and Josh Taylor.
Not only that, but the sparring footage of several years ago suggests that Lopez is capable of outboxing his opponent through large portions of their upcoming encounter.
Speaking with Ring Magazine, Garcia has expressed his own belief that the 29-year-old will emerge victorious against Romero.
“I want to fight [the winner of Romero-Lopez]. That’s what I want to end my Golden Boy [contract] with.
“Probably Teofimo [will win]. I feel like Teofimo has his number. I think the sparring is going to play a part.
“They’re both going to have a sense of hesitation, because of the sparring, but when Teofimo really believes in himself, [he’s hard to beat]. He didn’t seem like he was confident with Shakur at all.
“But I think, in this fight [against Romero], he knows what to do.”
With two fights remaining on his contract with DAZN and Golden Boy, Garcia must first retain his WBC title against Conor Benn on September 12.
