Just a day before the WBO’s ordered deadline, ESPN reports that junior welterweight titleholder Josh Taylor and mandatory challenger Teofimo Lopez have “agreed to a deal” to meet on June 10th in New York City.
They have yet to determine whether it will take place at Hulu Theater or Madison Square Garden proper.
The report from Mark Kriegel and Mike Coppinger also reveals that Boxxer “failed to place rescheduling language in the contract” for Taylor’s (19-0, 13 KO) planned rematch with Jack Catterall, which fell through when Taylor injured his foot. That seems like the sort of oversight people get fired for, but Catterall’s now got his sights set on fighting Regis Prograis, so maybe it’ll all work out.
Assuming this date holds together, Taylor will be ending a 15.5-month layoff. He hasn’t fought more than twice in a calendar year since overpowering Regis Prograis in 2019 and is now going back on his previous assertions that he couldn’t comfortably make 140 anymore.
Lopez (18-1, 13 KO) arguably shouldn’t be in this situation at all, as he barely scraped past Sandor Martin in their final eliminator.
All that aside, though, it should be a solid fight as long as Lopez doesn’t let Taylor build a lead and shift into cruise control the way he did against Jose Ramirez.