Josh Taylor lost his super-lightweight world title to Teofimo Lopez in a dreadful comeback outing at the Madison Square Garden Theatre in New York City on Saturday night.
The Scot hadn't fought in over a year since his controversial undisputed title defence against Jack Catterall in Glasgow's OVO Hydro. Meanwhile, former unified lightweight champion Lopez had been active - fighting twice since his November 2021 defeat to George Kambosos Jr at the same venue.
And that ring rust showed as the rounds wore on, with Taylor's impressive early start overturned by the latter stages of the fight for an ultimately comfortable win for the American. An unanimous decision went Lopez's way, allowing him a chance to score a decisive victory at the same theatre where he embarrassingly lost his belts two years prior.
Stars were out in force for the show, although infamously not legendary women's boxer Claressa Shields who made her disdain public for the ringside seats offered at the show. Instead, UFC champion Israel Adesanya, legendary fighter Gerry Cooney and actor Mario Lopez made up a famous front row,
Lopez started strong in the opening two rounds, but struggled to land his biggest shots including one particular right hook that missed wildly at almost every turn. And there was controversy in the third when Taylor appeared to put his rival down with a counter uppercut, but it was ruled a slip as the round progressed.
But in the fourth it was Taylor's turn to benefit from some interesting officiating as what appeared an even cleaner knockdown was not scored. However, it didn't deter him from pushing the issue and landing the night's biggest shot when one of his right hooks finally made its way through.
The fifth was another solid showing for Lopez, who had marred the build-up with a series of outlandish interviews in which he claimed he wanted to kill his opponent in the ring. And he looked menacing in the sixth and seventh, with the momentum having almost entirely shifted by the end of the seventh.
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By round eight, Lopez was back in his swagger looking like the young man that dethroned Vasyl Lomachenko in 2020. And he utterly dominated the ninth round, making his rival miss at multiple intervals in the most one-sided round of the night before another impressive tenth and eleventh.
And Taylor was finally relieved of his unbeaten streak and world titles after Lopez coasted to a win in the twelfth to finally banish the demons of his infamous title loss in New York City.
