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Josh Taylor vs. Teofimo Lopez is shaping up to be a spicy contest. The two men meet at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden, New York on Saturday to fight for Taylor’s WBO and The Ring light-welterweight titles.
There has been a lot of trash talk leading up to this one and it seems like Taylor has had enough of it.
Taylor sick of Lopez’s taunts
Josh Taylor has cut an increasingly frustrated figure in media appearances for his fight with Teofimo Lopez. Lopez, on the other hand, seems to be having a whale of a time, needling the serious Scotsman at every opportunity
Taylor recently walked out of a joint-interview with Lopez and told Sky Sports he did so because his opponent was talking “absolute waffle.”
“It’s just boring and you’re not even making any sense so I got up and said look I’m away, I’m going to get my dinner and go to bed, see you on June 10,” said Taylor.
Taylor added that he the amount of talk coming from Lopez speaks to the challenger having “nervous energy”.
Security increased after Teofimo Lopez’s threats
Carl Moretti, VP of boxing operations for Top Rank (who are promoting the fight), told Sky Sports that the trash talk has lead to increased security for the scheduled pre-fight press conference on Thursday.
Moretti said Top Rank are shelling out an extra $5,000 on security “because we’ve got to get to Saturday.”
The increase in security comes after Lopez’s rhetoric drifted beyond usual fight hype. During an interview with Punsh Drunk Boxing, Lopez said he wanted “to kill” Taylor.
“I took [Vasiliy Lomachenko’s] heat, but I’m taking Taylor’s life,” he said.
Taylor vs. Lopez is this Saturday night
Taylor vs. Lopez goes live on Saturday, June 10. Taylor will be looking to extend his pro record to 20-0 (and likely want to add his 14th KO to his record, too). Last time out he took a controversial split decision over Jack Catterall.
The 18-1 Lopez has won back-to-back losses to rebound after his 2021 split decision loss to George Kambosos Jr. That loss cost Lopez his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and The Ring lightweight titles.
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