Josh Taylor vs Teofimo Lopez Prediction: Everything on Taylor's Side

On June 11, two former champions, Josh Taylor and Teofimo Lopez, will fight for the WBO belt in New York City. The bout will consist of twelve rounds and will take place in the welterweight division.

Josh Taylor has not yet experienced bitter defeats. He won his first title in 2019 when he took the IBF belt from Ivan Baranchyk, the champion from Belarus. He became the undisputed champion in 2021, beating Jose Ramirez, and the following year he defended his title against Catterall. The fight with Jack was a bad one. Josh looked very weak, and the split decision in his favor was controversial. After that, Taylor kept his title, though according to another version; he was deprived of them for his refusal to defend himself.

Teofimo Lopez became IBF lightweight champion in 2019 when he won by TKO over Richard Commey. And his finest hour came one year later - suddenly and sensationally, Lopez defeated Vasyl Lomachenko and became the undisputed champion. In that fight, the Ukrainian lost to himself. His plan didn't work (Lopez managed to tip and score points), and Loma only became like himself in the last three rounds. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win.

After this "wonderful" victory, Teofimo, already in his next fight, gave the belt to George Kambosos. But then he won twice in a row, the last one against the little-known veteran Sandor Martin, also by a very controversial judging decision.

If you take any of the components of the fight, Taylor has the advantage. He's better trained, he's got better technique, his physics are all right, and his anthropometry. The only problem is that Josh doesn't train for fights seriously enough, and for some reason, he stopped showing his full potential. Teofimo Lopez is a one-sided fighter, but he can turn the tide of the fight with one punch at any time and is very good at following a plan.

This fight will be the decisive one in Josh Taylor's career. He hasn't fought in over a year; his last bout was extremely dismal, and he has a strained relationship with organizations... If Josh loses to a lightweight now, he's unlikely to get big fights after that soon. So we believe that he has prepared well and knows how to counter his speed, timing, striking power and ability to control the distance.