By Dan Ambrose: Josh Taylor has officially been ordered by the WBO to defend his light welterweight title against his#1 challenger Teofimo Lopez next. Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) and Teofimo (18-1, 13 KOs) have ten days to negotiate a deal before a purse bid is ordered.
They’re putting the fight together for May 27th or June 3rd in Taylor’s home country of Scotland. Interestingly, Teofimo already turned down a fight against WBC 140-lb champion Regis Prograis in what many boxing fans saw as a duck job by the former unified lightweight champion from New York.
Teofimo, 25, didn’t do much to earn his WBO-ordered title shot against Josh Taylor, as his recent 10 round split decision victory over Sandor Martin on December 10th was a controversial one with many boxing fans had him losing.
Hopefully, the 31-year-old Taylor can make it through training camp in one piece without suffering an injury. Recently, the former undisputed light welterweight champion Taylor suffered a plantar fascia foot injury, which wiped out his rematch with Jack Catterall.
As one would guess, Catterall is less than pleased about the news of Taylor choosing to move on and skip their rematch after planning to face him again to clear up the controversial decision in their fight a year ago in February 2022 in Glasgow.
“I’ve lost all confidence in Taylor now. I don’t think he’ll make it back to the ring, so it’s time to move forward,” said Jack Catterall to iD Boxing, reacting to Josh Taylor facing Teofimo Lopez next.
“I’m not surprised by anything anymore,” said Catterall when asked about his thoughts on Taylor facing Teofimo next. “We were six weeks away from the fight, the weekend Liam Smith beat Chris Eubank. We were scheduled to be announced the following Monday, but he pulled out with an injury.
“I seen online that he was quick to jump up and give it the big one. He’s yet to back it up. I seen the news this morning. It doesn’t surprise me whatsoever, and I told him when I seen him. I said, ‘I must have beat up. That body seems to be falling apart.’
“I believe he had an operation in the last year, and now it’s foot and then his knee, and then it was something else. I honestly don’t believe he’ll fight again. He achieved a great number of things in the sport.
“It’s going to be difficult for him to finish his career with that blemish on his record, and I’m definitely living rent-free in his head. We’ll see what happens with Taylor, but my focus is to get busy and get back to those world titles. The easiest possible route for me is Regis Prograis,” said Catterall.
