Via Charles Brun: WBO lightweight champion Josh Taylor is moving from a rematch against Jack Catterall to a much bigger match against the undisputedly talented former lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez in the summer in May or June.
Mike Coppinger is reporting on the Teofimo vs Taylor match being prepared for a UK summer clash in the UK. It’s the kind of genre that both fighters aspire to, and in the end, nothing can stop this bout from being made.
Top-ranked, phenom Teofimo promoters (18-1, 13 KOs) are working to arrange a match against undisputed former 140 lb champion Josh Taylor.
Josh Taylor wants fame and fortune
Obviously, Catterall and his fans will be disappointed when Taylor chooses to join the more lucrative fight against America’s Teofimo, but can you blame him?
Not only will this be a bigger money fight for Olympic athlete Taylor 2012 but it could also boost his reputation tenfold.
At 32 years old and having lost a year of his career due to inactivity pending rematch negotiations with Catterall, Taylor can no longer afford to invest valuable time in eliminating those pointless fights.
The clock is ticking on Taylor’s career, prompting him to move on. You can certainly make the solid argument that if the shoe were on the other foot and Catterall was offered a huge money-shoe match against Teofimo Lopez, he would quickly get out of the sand trap that fights Negotiations were for a rematch with Josh.
At this point, it is unknown whether the match will take place in Taylor’s hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. If so, it’s a great venue for the match.
That would be the case of Teofimo walking into the lion’s den with the crowd booing him, putting him in a situation where he could develop as a boxer by dealing with adversity against a supposedly good boxer. at the age of 140.
Teofimo is looking to take 1st place
A win for Teofimo over Scottish boxer Taylor would put him at the top of the light weight division and open the door to lucrative bouts for Teo against Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney and Regis Prograis, the big trio. at rank 140.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor was tired of wasting time trying to organize an unnecessary rematch with Catterall, who yielded nothing of value. Taylor beat Catterall last February, so it’s time to move on to bigger and better things.
It was a brilliant match for Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs), who needs a big fight at this stage of his career, after years of waiting for a big game to finally fail.
Mike Coppinger said: “Top Rank is planning a Josh Taylor-Teofimo Lopez junior welterweight title fight this summer in the UK. GAME.
“The 140-pound match, if finalized, is expected to take place in May or June…doesn’t appear to be any major hurdles to a deal.”
“I will tear him apart, body to head; he wouldn’t know what I would hurt him with, especially doing it in England,” Teofimo told Sky Sports. “I would really take him down better than Catterall did.”
Teofimo will need to fight a lot better than Catterall if they want to win as their fight is too close to determine a true winner.
Can Teo regain his old form?
What Teofimo gives him in this fight is his power, speed and explosiveness. He needs to start fighting like before when he defeated the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko, Richard Commey and Masayoshi Nakatani.
Since Teo’s win over Lomachenko in 2020, he hasn’t looked like an aggressive boxer in his last three bouts.
Some boxing fans believe that the punishment Teofimo suffered in his harrowing win over Lomachenkoi changed his morale, causing him to hesitate rather than switch to attack mode like he once did. .
Furthermore, Teo’s resistance to punches seemed to be getting worse as he was injured by light hitters George Kambosos Jr and Sandor Martin.
Surprisingly, Teofimo was knocked out twice by Sandor last December and fortunately escaped death with the decision to split 10 rounds in a match many felt he should have lost.
