Trainer turned pundit, Teddy Atlas, has provided some commentary that he fears will ‘upset his brothers and sisters across the pond.’
Josh Taylor recently lost his undefeated record and status as super-lightweight champion in New York, a stellar performance from Teofimo Lopez being the deciding factor.
Atlas analysed Taylor’s loss, praising the Brooklyn native whilst claiming the Scottish champion fought ‘a dumb fight’ and was thoroughly outclassed.
“The tangible damage was put there by one guy, Teofimo. I’m gonna say this for the analysis. Teofimo – besides being quicker, more explosive, more instinctual and handling the pressure – he just had a much smarter, more cerebral fight plan.
The other guy [Taylor] fought a stupid fight. I don’t like to call people stupid, but he fought a dumb fight. He just walked in cold … For the most part, Taylor, the southpaw, walked in cold all night. He put a dumb fight. I even tweeted during the fight, his trainer needs to tell him ‘look to catch Teo, especially early on.'”
Atlas said the fight was ‘not close’ and said only the early rounds could be scored towards Taylor at a push. He went on to say the Scotsman is ‘overrated’ by UK fans, and brought Anthony Joshua into that mix too.
“I’m just telling it like it is. I said this early – I’m on record. They didn’t like it the same way they didn’t like it when I said it about their beloved heavyweight champ [Anthony] Joshua. I said it about him. I said it about Taylor. They’re both overrated.”
Joshua and Taylor are two of the most decorated boxers fighting out of the UK. Following Olympic Gold, ‘AJ’ unified the heavyweight division over six fights, the statement performance of which was a stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko.
As for Taylor, his win over Jose Ramirez made him only the second fighter from Scotland to become undisputed, and he was the first man from the UK to do it in the four-belt era.
Atlas, though, believes they’ve been overhyped in terms of talent.