Josh Taylor 139.8 vs. Teofimo Lopez 140 -Official ESPN Weigh In Results

By Boxing News - 06/09/2023 - Comments

By Jim Calfa: A thin-looking WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor weighed in at 139.8 lbs, while challenger Teofimo Lopez came in at the limit at 140 pounds during Friday’s weigh-in for their fight on Saturday, June 10th.

Teofimo (18-1, 13 KOs) stripped and was weighed behind a screen to make the weight, which suggests that he’d been having problems getting down to the 140-lb limit we’ll before the weigh-in.

During the face-off, an animated Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) taunted the silent, sickly-looking Teofimo. Like yesterday, both fighters were kept apart by a large, chunky-looking security guard to keep them from shoving, as we saw at the Devin Haney vs. Vasyl Lomaachenko weigh-in.

We’ll see on Saturday if Teofimo is weakened from his efforts at getting down to the 140-lb limit. In Teo’s fights against Vasyl Lomachenko & George Kambosos Jr, he was fatigued after six rounds. Given how huge he was for both of those fights afteer rehydrating, it’s likely that the weight was the culprit.

It’s believed that when Teofimo was campaigning at lightweight, he would rehydrate to the mid-150s, which he got away with for a while, but he finally ran out of luck when he was physically drained for his fight against Kambosos Jr.

Taylor is the favorite in this fight for good reason. He’s fought the better opposition than Teofimo and is the superior fighter all around.

“Both have taken steps back; there’s no doubt about it. They’ve both taken steps backward lately, and both probably deserved to lose their last fights,” said Teddy Atlas on his The Fight channel, talking about Josh Taylor and Teofiimo Lopez.

YouTube video

“How often have we seen that where you go into a big fight and both
fighters probably lost their last fights? They got the house treatment, you know? They got the preferential treatment that we talk about.

“Taylor probably deserved to lose against [Jack] Catterall and Teofimo versus [Sandor] Martin. They were both whipped in these fights where they were prohibitive favorites but Taylor was actually hurt much worse.

“They just walked in with no setup notes disguising what their
intentions were. No boxing IQ. Just coming in and getting caught
coming in. It’s not what we came to expect of them or we thought we expected of them of being higher quality level athletes performing
fighters than just guys coming in, being game, and chucking punches.

“Teofimo kept getting caught with the southpaw right hook of Martin on his way in.

“Taylor will also have that right hook, ready to catch Teofimo coming in just like Martin caught him. If Teofimo just looks to come in cold with no feint or proper jab or science.

“Teofimo was reaching in a lot in his last fight. Taylor was also
just walking in, getting nailed with straight left hands from the southpaw Catterall.

“Of course, Teofimo is not a southpaw, so perhaps that’s going to favor Taylor.

“Josh Taylor has long arms. He should look to control the outside and force or try to get Teofimo to reach in to get him where he can catch
him with some counters as he comes forward.

“I think Taylor sometimes looks for his left uppercut maybe a little too much. I don’t know but for me, better be looking for some of the
other punches too. I think he could just catch Teofimo coming in.

“Like I said, force Teofimo outside, force him to make mistakes, and force him to reach a little bit, as he did in his last fight [against Martin]. If he does that, I think Taylor will be serving himself right.

“He’ll get a chance to maybe catch him again in the way Martin caught him. Teofimo should use feints before coming in. In other words,
knock on the front door a little bit before you just come in. Come in the side door. Keep Taylor off balance so he can’t time him coming in.

“Teofimo has to fight a controlled and disciplined fight, using his snappy jab to set up combinations, and not just looking for one big punch. He needs to fight a complete fight, as he did and never did again to that level against Lomachenko.

“We thought that we were watching a great fighter when we saw that and that it never quite materialized to that,” said Atlas about Teofimo.

All weights:

• Xander Zayas 152.8 lbs vs. Ronald Cruz 152.4 lbs
(Zayas’ NABO & NABF Junior Middleweight Titles — 8 Rounds)

(ESPN+, 6:15 p.m. ET/3:15 p.m. PT)

• Robson Conçeicão 130.6 lbs vs. Nicolas Polanco 130 lbs
(Junior Lightweight — 10 Rounds)

• Omar Rosario 139.2 lbs vs. Jan Carlos Rivera 138.4 lbs
(Junior Welterweight— 8 Rounds)

• Damian Knyba 261.4 lbs vs. Helaman Olguin 256.8 lbs
(Heavyweight — 8 Rounds)

• Bruce Carrington 126.8 lbs vs. Luis Porozo 126.4 lbs
(Featherweight — 8 Rounds)

• Henry Lebron 129.2 lbs vs. Carlos Ramos 129.6 lbs
(Junior Lightweight — 10 Rounds)