{"id":466658,"date":"2026-03-09T21:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/466658\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T21:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:49:15","slug":"teofimo-lopez-urges-haney-and-garcia-to-stop-a-side-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/466658\/","title":{"rendered":"Teofimo Lopez Urges Haney And Garcia To Stop A-Side Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust freaking fight,\u201d Teofimo said. \u201cThe best time for this fight to happen, but we\u2019re talking on who\u2019s the A-side, B-side. Clearly, the boxing business is long-gating this in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Haney and Garcia first met in April 2024 in Brooklyn. Garcia scored three knockdowns and was awarded a majority decision. The result was later changed to a no-contest after Garcia tested positive for a banned substance.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the official ruling, the images from that fight remain central to the discussion of the rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia later captured the WBC welterweight title by defeating Mario Barrios. Haney has continued competing at the top level of the sport.<\/p>\n<p>Teofimo pointed to the fighters\u2019 history as a reason the rematch should proceed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth World Champions have a history in the ring,\u201d Teofimo said. \u201cUnification and The Ring title on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Haney has previously minimized the importance of A-side discussions. When addressing the possible rematch earlier this month, he referred to the involvement of Saudi sports official Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t even really started negotiating to even say what\u2019s the A-side or B-side,\u201d Haney said. \u201cIf Turki Alalshikh is going to put on the fight then it\u2019s really no A-side or B-side. You get what you get, and you go your way, and I go my way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saudi-backed cards have sometimes paid fighters separately rather than structuring events through a traditional A-side hierarchy.<\/p>\n<p>Discussion around the rematch has continued in recent weeks as both fighters comment publicly on potential negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just saying what everyone else is thinking,\u201d Teofimo said. \u201cMake the fight happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The disagreement ultimately comes down to status and visibility. Even if Saudi funding removes the purse dispute, the question of billing remains. Ryan\u2019s massive social media following and his three knockdowns of Haney in their first fight still influence how the rivalry is viewed.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan now holds the WBC welterweight title after defeating Mario Barrios. With his own belt and the public memory of that fight still fresh, Ryan has reason to believe he should receive top billing if the rematch moves forward.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia\u2019s larger following and his performance in the first fight continue to influence how the rivalry is viewed as negotiations remain unresolved.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJust freaking fight,\u201d Teofimo said. \u201cThe best time for this fight to happen, but we\u2019re talking on who\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-466658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}