It was finally announced yesterday that Josh Taylor will defend his light welterweight world title against Teofimo Lopez at Madison Square Garden, June 10. Taylor goes up against the former lightweight king, who comes off a similarly less than convincing performance in his last fight.
Both fighters were paraded on Top Rank’s broadcast of Shakur Stevenson vs. Shuichiro Yoshino, with Taylor ringside convinced of how the 140lbs clash will end.
“I’m completely confident that this fight will not go past 6 to 8 rounds.” Said Taylor to ESPN’s Mark Kriegel.
“All I can say is that he didn’t look too good in his last fight. But I’m not preparing myself for that, I’m preparing myself for the best version of Teofimo Lopez. But, that is still not good enough to beat the likes of myself.”
Lopez was given a chance to respond by Kriegel, who joined via video call.
“It don’t matter man.” Lopez said when responding to evaluate Taylor’s last fight. “To be honest it don’t matter. He fought Jack Catterall, who is a southpaw, I’m orthodox. I’m looking forward to putting on a show, like I always do. Put them infornt of me and I’ll beat them.
“I’m the best, and I fight the best. I don’t duck or dodge nobody, Josh Taylor definitely knows that.”
Taylor, much more specific in his prediction of the his upcoming duel with Lopez, later discredited his rival more aggressively in the very same broadcast.
“You never had the kahuna’s to come here tonight and face me.” Sated Taylor. “I travelled halfway across the world and yo have been man enough to even come and say hello. You will just have to wait until I see you.”
There has been some back-and-forth between the pair for some time, but Taylor insisted he was keeping his cool ahead of the bout.
“It’s never personal, this is business.” Taylor stated. “This is the fight game. He’s a good fight who’s been talking a lot of smack about me for the last couple of years. You got to be careful what you wish for, he’s now got it. He’s gonna get a doing now.”
