After being linked to a host of fighters following his world title win, WBC welterweight ruler Ryan Garcia now believes he has been left with just one option for his first defence of his new 147lb title.

Garcia breezed through Mario Barrios with ease last month and he has since been linked to a grudge rematch with Devin Haney and a move back down to super-lightweight to take on Shakur Stevenson, as well as dust-up’s with Conor Benn and Arnold Barboza Jr.

As one of the most high-profile, household names in the sport today, but still relatively too unproven to be a possible pound-for-pound consideration, Garcia has subsequently become one of the most in-demand world champions across all weights.

However, on a n3on Kick stream, Ryan Garcia let slip that he has now been left with only one option for his next bout, with Haney, Stevenson and Benn pursuing alternate fights. Instead, ‘King Ry’ believes that two-division champion Teofimo Lopez is next in store.

“Well, I don’t have really many options, Devin Haney ducked me, Shakur just ducked me, so I got one option … Yeah, Teofimo. I mean, for him to come to 147, is going to be hard for him, but he has said that he is down.”

Lopez lost his WBO super-lightweight world title to Stevenson last time out, but revealed that he would be moving up to welterweight during the aftermath.

Meanwhile, Devin Haney is expected to take on Rolando Romero in a welterweight title unification bout in May, whilst Conor Benn debuts with Zuffa Boxing next month.