Undisputed super lightweight champion Josh Taylor has responded to claims that he is running scared of Teofimo Lopez.
Lopez and his father believe the Scot wants no piece of the world’s number one lightweight who intends to move up to 140lbs in the near future. The 23-year-old New Yorker defends his three world titles against George Kambosos on June 19 and has his eyes set on challenging Taylor in a bid to become a two-weight champion.
“If that happens, it happens. I’d happily take the fight and cut him down to size,” Taylor told The Scotsman.
“I’d bring him down to earth with a bang. I genuinely think I’d beat him up if we ever meet but I’ve no real interest in Teofimo Lopez. How they can have the audacity to say I’m scared of him is… it’s just a joke.”
While Taylor is definitively the undisputed 10 stone champion ‘The Tartan Tornado’ took a shot at Lopez’ claims that he is also the keeper of all four titles at lightweight. There are daily debates as to whether Lopez really is undisputed because of the ludicrous situation with the WBC. As things stand Lopez owns the WBA, IBF and WBO titles but the World Boxing Council list him as their franchise champion while Devin Haney is the WBC champion and defended the belt against Jorge Linares last weekend.
“Lopez is saying that he’s an undisputed world champion when he isn’t – he only has three of the belts,” Taylor said.
“He still has business to take care of at lightweight but he’s obviously just bumping his gums because he wants the big fights, which is understandable.”
Main image: Mikey Williams