Lopez shows support for Garcia: “It takes a brave soul to express tough times mentally”
Teofimo Lopez has ditched the trash talk to send support to Ryan Garcia.
Teofimo Lopez has become a pretty good trash talker along with a world-class professional fighter, but he flipped that switch off to show some public support for fellow young star Ryan Garcia, who has withdrawn from his scheduled July 9 fight with Javier Fortuna to deal with some mental health issues.
Lopez posted this on Twitter yesterday:
It takes a brave soul like Ryan Garcia to openly express that he's going through tough times mentally. Instead of pointing the finger at him maybe you all should take a lesson from it!
— Teofimo Lopez (@TeofimoLopez) April 24, 2021
We're all dealing with something so what makes us any better? #LOVEyours
Lopez and Garcia are, to some degree, media rivals, in that they’re both hot young names in the sport and both lightweights, too. In theory, Garcia wants what Lopez has, the world titles. And there has been talk about that fight happening at some point. Lopez has also expressed at least occasional respect for Garcia taking a fight earlier this year with Luke Campbell, compared to the opposition Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney have been fighting.
Fortuna also sent out public support for Garcia after yesterday’s announcement, saying, “There are things more important than fighting and I hope he is able to quickly recover. We can reschedule our fight for a time when I can face and beat a 100% prepared version of Ryan Garcia.”