By Dan Ambrose: Teofimo Lopez Sr says he wants undisputed 140-lb champion Josh Taylor as Teofimo Jr’s next opponent after he defends his four 135-lb titles against George Kambosos Jr in June 19th.
(Photos/Tom Hogan, Triller Fight Club)
Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) isn’t interested in fighting the unbeaten Teofimo (16-0, 12 KOs), and he still has unfinished business at 135, needing to capture the WBC title to make him the undisputed champion.
If Teofimo beats the winner of this Saturday’s clash between WBC 135lb champion Devin Haney and Jorge Linares, he’ll finally be able to call himself the undisputed champion without boxing fans disagreeing with him.
Top Rank wants Taylor to fight Catterall next
That’s going to take a while for Teofimo’s promoters at Top Rank to set up the fight with Taylor, and it’s unknown if they’ll be able or willing to do that.
Unless he changes his mind, Taylor will be fighting his WBO mandatory Jack Catterall next in the UK. That’s a lesser soft-job fight reminiscent of the types of fighters that Taylor was fighting years ago.
Nevertheless, Taylor has to get Catterall out of the way due to him being his WBO mandatory. Catterall already stepped aside so that Taylor could face WBC/WBO champion Jose Ramirez last Saturday.
In the meantime, Teofimo’s dad, Teofimo sr, has labeled Taylor as “scared” to take the fight because he knows what’s going to happen to him.
Teofimo will be fighting next month in defending his IBF, WBA, WBC Franchise, and WBO lightweight titles against George Kambosos Jr (19-0, 10 KOs) on June 19th on Triller pay-per-view at the LoanDepot Park, Miami
Teofimo Sr says Josh Taylor is scared
“We want Josh Taylor next, and he’s already punking out because he knows what’s going on,” said Teofimo Sr to Fighthype. “There’s no way Josh can beat my son, he’s got no skills.
“He’s got a little bit of skills here and there, but he doesn’t think like my son. It’s like you’re playing a checkers match against a chess match, and that’s what my son does in the ring.
“We don’t need to throw a lot of punches. We just set you up, bro, and he knows it, that’s why he’s scared,” Teofimo Sr said of Josh Taylor.
“I want Josh Taylor next, and if he doesn’t take Teofimo Lopez, you know he’s scared. Josh comes to fight. He’s not better than my son.
My son is faster, stronger, smarter. He’s smarter, and you got to know how to adapt,” said Teofimo Sr about his son being the superior fighter to Josh Taylor.
Taylor may be afraid of the threat that the 23-year-old Teofimo possesses to him, as it’s another hard fight. Taylor might not relish the idea of facing back-to-back tough opponents.
Ramirez turned out to be a tough fight for Taylor, and it wasn’t the easy victory that he made it sound like afterward.
Taylor scored knockdowns in rounds six and seven, but it was anyone’s fight up until then. In the championship rounds, Taylor gassed out, allowing Ramirez to come storming back.
Ultimately, that’s why the judges scored the contest 114-112, 114-112, 114-112. Taylor complained afterward about the scoring, believing that he should have won the fight by a wider margin. However, the fact is, Taylor, faded late in the contest and allowed Ramirez to rally.
It was an uneven performance by Taylor, who let his foot off the gas pedal many times in the contest, and that enabled Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) to win rounds just through sheer hard work.
At the same time, Taylor got away with a massive amount of holding that essentially may have saved him from losing.
Without all the clinching that Taylor was doing, he might have lost because he couldn’t match Ramirez’s work rate to slow him down.
As a result, Taylor chose to bend the rules a little by frequently holding, which the referee should have stopped.
Moving forward, holding isn’t a strategy that Taylor will be able to count on to beat fighters like Teofimo or Terence Crawford. Taylor will have to work on his stamina so that he doesn’t need to rely on tying up his opposition to try and win.
Josh Taylor = six-round fighter
“He [Taylor] never adapted to Ramirez. Ramirez took the last four rounds and that shows me that he ain’t ready for us,” Teofimo Sr said. “Stop your bull s****, Josh, and take this fight. It’s the biggest fight that can be made.
“It’s not the same if you go and fight Crawford. Crawford has been out of the game for a long time already.
“You need to fight my son to show the whole world who you are. Stop that bull s*** that he’s got unsettled business in the 135 weight division.
“We already proved to the world that we beat the man [Vasily Lomachenko] to be the man. We are undisputed. They’re scared, everybody is scared.
“We’re going to get the fight with Haney if this punk a** dude from England doesn’t want to fight us because he’s scared,” Teofimo Sr said in talking about Josh Taylor.
It doesn’t sound good when you hear Teofimo Sr say that Josh Taylor is a six-round fighter, but he indeed is exactly that. In Taylor’s two hardest fights of his career against Ramirez and Regis Prograis, he gassed out after six rounds in both fights.
Yeah, Taylor scored a knockdown in the seven-round against Ramirez, but it was a dirty move in which he threw a left uppercut during a break. It was a cheap move, and it worked, but it wasn’t what you like to see from fighters.
Like with Taylor’s nonstop holding, if he’s going to depend on hitting on the break to help him win fights, that’s not a good strategy for long-term success. If your strategy is to nail your opponents on a break, it reflects badly, particularly if you’re already gaming the system with excessive clinching.
“I don’t know nothing about this dude. All I seen was his fight with Ramirez, and Ramirez was taking it to him in the last round. You got to know how to adapt, boy, and you cannot beat my son if you don’t know how to adapt.
“I see my son breaking this dude [Taylor] down in five or six rounds. He’s a five or six-round fighter, that’s all he is, and Ramirez showed it,” Teofimo Sr said of Josh Taylor.