Carl Froch has weighed in with a prediction for the hotly anticipated super lightweight clash between Josh Taylor and Teofimo Lopez in New York this weekend.
The two fiery 140lbers will lock horns at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theatre on Saturday night for Taylor’s WBO world title, in a fight that could have disastrous implications for the loser.
Speaking on his YouTube channel Froch on Fighting, Froch revealed he was siding with his fellow Brit to get the job done at retain his world title.
“Taylor’s not been busy, and he’s jumping straight in with Lopez. Lopez is very confident, it’s in America. But Taylor is very, very confident, he’s a great fighter, very experienced and he’s going to want to become unified champion again after vacating most of his belts.
Lopez will have other ideas, what a great fighter Lopez is. Very confident and still, even though he’s getting on a bit in his career, full of ambition.
I think it’s a great fight, and I think Josh Taylor wins that fight. It’s going to be close, and I think it’s going to go the distance.
But I think ‘The Tartan Tornado’ will win on points in a great fight.”
The view is that both Taylor and Lopez are fighters in need of a statement performance, given the Scot’s dubious win over Jack Catterall last February and Lopez’ string of underwhelming performances since a career best win over Vasiliy Lomachenko back in 2020.
Taylor is the favourite in the eyes of the bookmakers, and is said to be enjoying life under a new training team in Liverpool, having made the switch from previous coach Ben Davison to Joe McNally following the performance against Catterall.