Taking main event honors this weekend in a massive championship outing, Scottish titleholder, Josh Taylor faces one of the biggest challenges of his undefeated career to date – as he clashes with former lightweight champion, Teofimo Lopez.
Slated to headline a massive Madison Square Garden pay-per-view event in New York City, Taylor, who boasts a 19-0 professional record, most recently improved on his unbeaten run, defeating Jack Catterall with a close, split decision victory on home soil in Glasgow, Scotland back in February of this year.
18-1 as a professional, former WBA and WBO lightweight champion, Lopez’s first and so far only professional loss in boxing has come against former world champion, George Kambosos Jr. back in November 2021.
Putting his championship on the line in a massive matchup against Lopez, Taylor enters this weekend’s Madison Square Garden event as a rather narrow -185 betting favorite to defeat the former champion over at BetWay.
And despite landing victories in his last two ring walks since dropping his championships to Kambosos Jr. back in 2021, Lopez is currently seated as a narrow +160 betting underdog to reclaim championships this weekend in New York City against Taylor.
Defending light welterweight gold against Lopez this weekend at Madison Square Garden, Taylor, a native of Prestonpans, won WBA and WBO spoils back in 2019 in a highlight-reel victory against Regis Prograis.
3-0 in championship fights since, Taylor has defeated Apinun Khongsong, Jose Ramirez, and the above-mentioned, Catterall since 2020.
In other notable career triumphs, Taylor has defeated Ohara Davis, Miguel Vasquez, Ryan Martin, and Ivan Barnachyk.
Following his championship loss to Kambosos Jr. back in 2021, Lopez has rebounded successfully with back-to-back wins over both Perdo Campa, and in December of last year ‘The Mecca’ – stole a split decision win over Sandor Martin.
16-0 before dropping his crowns in 2021, Lopez had recorded noteworthy wins over Edis Tatli, Richard Commey, and recent feature and former world champion, Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist, Vasily Lomachenko.
Sharing a cagey run-up to this weekend’s event, Taylor has expressed how he has no time for any antics from Lopex throughout fight week.
“He just talks absolute waffle, just waffles on, makes no sense and I can’t be bothered listening to it,” Josh Taylor said. “It’s just boring and you’re not even making any sense so I got up and said, look, I’m away. I’m going to get my dinner and go to bed, see you on June 10.”
In futher odds and bets available with BetWay, Taylor has found himself as a stark favorite to finish the fight via strikes, resulting in a KO or TKO victory at Madison Square Garden this weekend, currently coming in as a -240 betting favorite to stop Lopez.
As for the Brooklyn native, the hometown fighter and challenger is currently placed as a rather high +500 betting underdog to himself finish the fight against Taylor via KO or TKO in their light welterweight championship offing.
Combined throughout their illustrious and gold-laden careers, Taylor and Lopez have landed a whopping 26 career knockout wins, with both men landing 13 career stoppages via strikes apiece.