Teofimo Lopez wants Ryan Garcia, but Ryan will not be available for several months. That gives Lopez time to satisfy his WBA obligation against Jack Catterall instead of protecting his position while Ryan takes another fight.

Ryan discussed returning against Isaac Cruz or Angel Fierro in December or January before targeting Teofimo around Cinco de Mayo. Teofimo does not need to spend that entire period waiting.

WBA president Gilberto Mendoza stated in July that the winner of the bout between Rolly Romero and Teofimo must face Catterall next. Catterall now wants that commitment enforced.

“I expect the WBA and Gilberto Mendoza to stand on business, keep their word and honour what was agreed. Like I say, I don’t ask for favours, just what was agreed and what I deserve,” Catterall posted on X.

The WBA may clarify Catterall’s position Monday. President Gilberto Mendoza announced that the championship committee’s decisions will be released then, although he did not identify the divisions involved. With Mendoza already committed publicly to making the Romero-Teofimo winner fight Catterall next, the welterweight ruling will receive immediate scrutiny.

The sporting argument is simple. Ryan can take his winter tune-up while Teofimo defends against Catterall. If both win, the May date between Ryan and Teofimo remains intact.

The business calculation explains the hesitation from Teofimo. Catterall is a southpaw who refuses to provide easy counterpunching opportunities. Teofimo looked erratic against Sandor Martin and Jamaine Ortiz when those southpaws denied him clean exchanges.

Catterall offers another difficult tactical night without delivering the massive financial return of a Ryan event

Avoiding Catterall brings problems. Teofimo would reach May after a long absence while Ryan arrives sharp from a recent winter outing. A dominant victory over Catterall proves Teofimo belongs at the top of the division and makes the bout with Ryan much easier to sell on pay-per-view. Sitting on the shelf also hands Ryan total leverage over purse splits, ring location, and weight terms. Ryan draws massive numbers regardless of who holds the belts. Teofimo needs Ryan to secure the biggest payday of his career.

If the WBA allows Lopez to stay idle while Catterall waits, the organization confirms its mandatory rules mean very little. Teofimo has ample time to make the defense. The only genuine obstacle is the fear that Catterall ruins the entire plan. If Matchroom and Catterall legally corner the WBA and demand an immediate purse bid, the chance of Teofimo vacating the belt is extremely high.

Teofimo knows by now the belt is secondary in this equation. Ryan draws massive gate receipts and pay-per-view buys whether a sanctioning body strap hangs over his shoulder or not. Ryan proved that against Gervonta Davis and Devin Haney, generating elite commercial numbers without needing sanctioning body validation.

For Teofimo, holding the WBA title is useful for billing, but holding onto it becomes reckless if defending it requires facing Catterall. Catterall’s ring movement and refusal to trade invite the exact difficulties that caused Teofimo problems against Jamaine Ortiz and Sandor Martin. A spoiler-style decision loss to Catterall destroys Teofimo’s leverage, ruins the Cinco de Mayo payday, and drops him completely out of the conversation.

Vacating the belt would be a calculated business move rather than a surrender. If Teofimo drops the WBA strap, he removes the obligation, avoids the stylistic trap Catterall presents, and walks straight into negotiations with Ryan based purely on his own name and promotional profile. Dropping the belt costs him sanctioning fees and a piece of hardware, but risking it against Catterall could cost him tens of millions of dollars. If the WBA genuinely threatens to strip him, expect Teofimo to drop the belt first and claim he outgrew sanctioning body politics.

Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz retained his WBC interim super lightweight title with a crushing sixth-round knockout of Nestor Bravo before calling out Ryan Garcia in San Diego.

Cruz improved to 29-3-2 with 19 knockouts after finding the finish at Pechanga Arena following a scrappy opening to the contest.

Both fighters spent portions of the early rounds wrestling for position, forcing referee Thomas Taylor to issue warnings as Cruz struggled to establish the relentless pressure usually associated with his style.

Bravo was eventually deducted a point for throwing Cruz to the canvas in the fourth. Cruz responded in the best possible way by hurting the Puerto Rican with a left hook later in the round.

Bravo recovered and enjoyed a better fifth before Cruz produced the decisive moment.

A perfectly placed lead left hook in the sixth buckled Bravo’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Taylor immediately called the fight off at 1:30, handing Cruz another knockout victory.

“We worked on that punch in camp,” Cruz said. “That specific shot. We took our time and it worked out perfectly.”

Bravo questioned the stoppage afterwards but admitted Cruz had been the better man.

Cruz then wasted little time identifying who he wants next.

“Hey Ryan, I’m here. My next fight is with you. Come on Ryan, come on!” Cruz said.

“December, May or September. If Ryan wants to fight me, it doesn’t matter when. I’ll be ready.”

Marcial Lands One-Punch Finish

Eumir Marcial produced the quickest finish of the televised bouts with a one-punch knockout of Omar Ulises Huerta.

The Filipino Olympic bronze medalist timed Huerta’s left hand and fired back with a right hook that sent his opponent crashing to the canvas.

The contest was over at 1:08 of the third round, moving Marcial to 8-0 with five knockouts.

Blancas Remains Unbeaten

Daniel Blancas continued his unbeaten rise at super middleweight by stopping Sergio Jimenez in the seventh round.

Jimenez had never previously been stopped, but Blancas gradually broke him down with pressure and repeated attacks to the body. A ringside doctor examined Jimenez after the sixth before allowing him to continue.

Blancas picked up where he left off until referee Ray Corona decided Jimenez had taken enough at 1:38 of the seventh. Blancas moved to 16-0 with eight stoppages.

Verde Survives First Knockdown

Green Frame experienced the first knockdown of his professional career before recovering to stop Guillermo Hernandez in five rounds.

The Mexican Olympic silver medalist was caught off balance by a right hand in the third but quickly regained control.

Hernandez continued to absorb punishment until the contest was halted at 1:46 of round five. Verde improved to 7-0 with four knockouts.

About the Author

Phil Jay is the Editor-in-Chief of World Boxing News (WBN), a BWAA-acknowledged boxing news website founded in 2010. A veteran boxing reporter with 16 years of experience, he has interviewed world champions, broken international exclusives, and reported ringside from major events. His work is published worldwide through WBN and distributed on platforms including Apple News.

Read Phil Jay’s full bio and latest stories.

Anthony Joshua turning to Ben Davison to crack the Tyson Fury code is a flawed strategy built on outdated history. While Joshua balances visits to Oleksandr Usyk’s team in Spain and Derrick James in Texas, Davison’s presence in camp is being sold as an inside track on Fury. In reality, Davison’s playbook offers nothing useful against the Kronk fighter Fury became years ago.

Joshua recently spent time in Spain working around Team Usyk, yet he has returned to Davison’s gym in Essex while keeping ties with Derrick James open. Eddie Hearn has refrained from naming a single head trainer or confirming a permanent camp base, although he took steps to remove doubt surrounding Davison’s presence.

“I think in some capacity he’ll stay close to them,” Hearn stated regarding Joshua’s ties to Usyk’s team. “He’s always been, even when Ben wasn’t his principal trainer, working with him strategically, talking all the time. I think he respects Ben a lot. Obviously, there’s probably a feeling that Ben Davison knows Tyson Fury extremely well. I don’t know AJ’s final decision to where he’s going to locate his training camp, but Ben Davison will definitely be involved in that camp and that process.”

Davison’s familiarity with Fury cuts both ways. Fury knows how Davison schemes, how he sequences combinations, and how he reacts when a fight slips away from the whiteboard. Any blueprint reliant on years past will run into a fighter who knows the playbook just as well.

The bigger problem is that Davison worked with a completely different fighter. Davison guided the elusive version of Fury who completed a comeback and survived Deontay Wilder across twelve rounds in 2018. That fighter was a survival project built on light jabs, lateral evasion, and snatching rounds from the outside. Fury realized the limitations of that safety-first approach, parted ways with Davison in late 2019, and went to SugarHill Steward to resurrect the Kronk style.

Under Steward, Fury abandoned the backfoot bouncing, added twenty pounds of solid bulk, and committed to walking opponents down. He uses heavyweight bullying to control the ring: collar ties, framing with the forearms, turning opponents in the clinch, and dropping his upper body weight over their neck and shoulders. Davison never coached that style, never cornered Fury while he executed it, and was abandoned because Fury outgrew the light-hitting system Davison specializes in.

Preparing Joshua for the 2018 iteration of Fury is a trap. The modern Fury will not waste energy trying to outbox Joshua cleanly from the outside. He will lean his massive frame on Joshua, tie up his arms, and make every round an exhausting physical grind.

Consulting Team Usyk brings its own tactical contradictions. Usyk neutralized Fury using rapid lateral escapes, constant rhythm disruption, and cruiserweight agility. Joshua is a muscular, upright heavyweight who moves in straight lines. Forcing Joshua to mimic Usyk’s fluid footwork while executing Davison’s mechanical combinations will only leave him disjointed.

Trainer hopping has defined Joshua’s post-McCracken career. Moving through Robert Garcia, Derrick James, Davison, and Team Usyk points to a fighter looking for external solutions to internal doubts. When Joshua faces adversity, conflicting philosophies will paralyze him.

Joshua does not need a committee of trainers offering polite suggestions. He needs a single corner authority with absolute control over the strategy. If Joshua carries multiple voices into the ring, the hesitation will give Fury all the openings he needs.

The recent disaster with Moses Itauma against Filip Hrgovic exposed the exact same systemic flaws that showed up when Daniel Dubois ran right through Joshua at Wembley. Davison builds intricate, lab-tested game plans for the opening bell, but the moment a heavyweight fight turns into an ugly, grueling dogfight, his system breaks down.

Against Hrgovic, Itauma had everything going his way early, scored a knockdown, and swept rounds, yet the tank emptied completely because the conditioning foundation was not built for deep waters. When the crisis hit, Davison had no Plan B, telling a gassed 21-year-old to take deep breaths instead of giving him a practical survival strategy.

That identical corner paralysis was on full display against Dubois. Joshua walked out stiff, mechanical, and completely unprepared for a fighter charging forward with bad intentions. When Dubois clipped him in the first round, Davison looked lost. There were no adjustments to clinch, buy time, or change the target. Joshua was left wandering into right hands until the fifth-round finish.

The fact that Joshua kept Davison after the Dubois demolition shows a fighter desperately clinging to the comfort of Davison’s praise rather than demanding hard-nosed accountability. Joshua believes Davison holds the secret blueprint to beat Fury because Davison was in Fury’s corner years ago.

Relying on Davison to outscheme Fury is a massive tactical error. Fury knows Davison’s limitations better than anyone, which is why Fury left him for SugarHill Steward in the first place. If Joshua walks into a fight against Fury depending on Davison’s whiteboard tactics, he is walking into the exact same trap that cost Itauma his undefeated record and left Joshua flat on his back against Dubois.