In a highly anticipated bout for the WBO and Ring Magazine junior welterweight crowns, undefeated super lightweight king Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) will meet former unified lightweight Teofimo López (18-1, 13 KOs) at the Madison Square Garden Arena in New York City, New York.
Taylor vs. Lopez
Both Taylor and Lopez are two men who are on the microscope lately with much of the boxing world not being too impressed with their performances since both men are kings of their respective divisions of 140 pounds and 135 pounds.
Taylor, 32, had his crowning moment as an elite talent when defeating Regis Prograis in a great fight in 2019, and in May 2021 Taylor accomplished a history-making moment when unifying the division by defeating Jose Ramirez.
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Taylor’s next bout saw him take a controversial split decision against Jack Catterall in February 2022 and has not fought since due to conflicting issues in booking a rematch between the two, the latest being the rematch being set for March 4th. Taylor, however, pulled out due to injury which led to Catterall taking a “stay busy” fight that also did not happen to which resulted to Taylor being booked against López.
Taylor was also at this time being criticized for failing to vacate the titles as well as showing no intentions to fight any of the mandatories from the boxing organizations, as it was believed he would either rematch Catterall or move up to 147 pounds mainly looking to fight Terence Crawford. In the end, neither result materialized.
In the other corner we have Lopez, 25, who beat Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2020 to unify three of the four world titles at lightweight that saw him become the man at 140 lbs.
But after a 13 month layoff for issues to book his mandatory fight with George Kambosos Jr., Top Rank also having money disputes over the purse bids to which Triller won and wasn’t able to put on, leaving DAZN and Matchroom Boxing to set the stage on November 2021 to where Kambosos shocked the world and gained a victory over Lopez.
After not forgoing a rematch with Kambosos, López wouldn’t see the ring against until August 2022 defeating Pedro Campa and later that year defeating Sandor Martin, two bouts that didn’t exactly spell dominance for Lopez despite the wins to which Teofimo stated he wasn’t sure if he still had what it takes to be fighting. A statement he later retracted by claiming he was “fooling all the suckers.”
Despite the trials and tribulations both men have gone through, and though they aren’t as hot as they were in 2021, there is still reason to believe this fight should answer many questions both men have looming over them.
