By: Sean Crose
At thirty-two, he already holds a world title and has yet to lose a single one of his 19 matches. He’s also beaten one of the most talented fighters in his division and is just hours away from facing a former world player. However, young WBO welterweight champion Josh Taylor didn’t receive the praise and nods of approval that others in his position might have, if they were in perfect shape. his scene. Undoubtedly, all will change tomorrow night in New York City if the Scotsman beats Teofimo Lopez, Brooklyn’s own 18-1 multi-belt winner in the match. their scheduled 12th round championship.
This fight is getting a lot of attention – and for good reason. Lopez is a powerful boxer at lightweight, beating anyone but the great Vasyl Lomachenko on his way to the title. However, Lopez has not particularly impressed since then, losing the title to George Kambosos in his first title defense and looking less than extraordinary since moving up the weight division. base scale. Furthermore, there has been a lot of attention focused on Lopez’s announcement that he wants to end Taylor’s life this weekend.
“I wanted to knock this guy out,” Taylor said, adding that “at the end of the day, you want him back, recovered, healthy, unharmed and back home.” Taylor clearly wants to set herself apart from the competition this Saturday, both in personality and in ring talent. To do both, however, he has to expect Lopez to be as good as he can get through the ropes — and that Lopez can be an incredibly difficult mountain to climb. Taylor, however, seems confident. At least, he didn’t let Lopez think about it until this weekend.
If he wins on Saturday, Taylor will have a win over Lopez, as well as Regis Prograis, whom he picked a few years ago, on his resume. That sort of thing – defeating two big name gladiators – couldn’t go unnoticed, nor should it. Whether Taylor is then considered one of the top fighters in the business remains to be seen. After all, he has to beat Lopez first, and that’s definitely not guaranteed… which, of course, makes tomorrow night’s game worth watching. Involved fights between high level/high profile fighters is always a good thing.
