Teófimo López restored his status as one of boxing’s brightest young stars on Saturday night, bucking the odds in delivering a shocking beatdown of the formerly unbeaten Josh Taylor to become a two-weight champion.
The mercurial 25-year-old Brooklyn native took control of the fight after three rounds, out-throwing and out-landing the WBO and lineal junior welterweight champion from Scotland for lengthy stretches before flatly dominating Taylor in the final stages and nearly finishing him inside the distance. Two of the ringside judges somehow agreed on the dubious score of 115-113, while the third handed down the far more legitimate 117-111. (The Guardian had it 116-112.)
López, a former unified lightweight champion, went off as an underdog for only the second time in his professional career, having failed to impress in two previous outings against fringe contenders since climbing to 140lbs. But he dramatically raised his game against Taylor, the division’s alpha dog since consolidating all four belts only two years ago, by landing the cleaner, harder punches all night before an animated sold-out crowd of 5,151 spectators that turned the Theater at Madison Square Garden into a rollicking bandbox.
“It’s been a long time coming,” López said. “We just beat the No 1 guy, the lineal world champion, the former undisputed world champion.”
The pessimism surrounding the American’s chances in Saturday’s affair had gone beyond the high caliber of his opponent and his uneven form since the upset loss to George Kambosos that chased him from the lightweight ranks. There was the self-doubt that surfaced after December’s plodding decision over Sandor Martin. There were the contentious ongoing divorce proceedings with his wife, who he’s said is denying him contact with their son. There were the series of concerning statements throughout the promotion that drifted into suicidal ideation, calling his mental fitness into question and creating a general perception of chaos around his personal life. In a Ring magazine poll of 21 boxing experts published on Tuesday, all 21 picked Taylor to win.
But after silencing the doubters in emphatic fashion, López was a picture of jubilation as he described how he’s at his best when things appear at their worst.
“I like ‘against all odds’, I like when I question myself,” Lopez said. “I do it on purpose. I need the pressure on me because that’s what makes diamonds and tonight I shined very bright.”
Taylor, the stylish 32-year-old southpaw from Edinburgh, pressed his advantages of two inches in height and one inch in reach from the opening bell, targeting the challenger’s body with educated combination punching even as the quicker López, a natural left-hander operating from an orthodox stance, cleverly maneuvered to land the heavier shots.
The two-way action unfolded at a fast pace and on even terms into the fourth, where the hyperfocused López began separating himself through superior hand speed and workrate, appearing to gain confidence by the minute. As the overwhelmingly partisan crowd chanted vulgarities at the champion, López landed a concussive right hand that rocked Taylor backward into the ropes. Had it not been so close to the end of the round, things might have gotten more complicated for Taylor. They soon did all the same.
By the seventh Taylor had all but abandoned the jab under López’s unyielding pressure and was getting beaten to the punch consistently, rendered tactically bankrupt amid worrying stretches of inactivity. Out of answers, the Scot ceded total control to his emboldened opponent, who touched him up with one punishing counter after another.
López put on a show in the ninth, snapping Taylor’s head back with punches from all angles and just plain beating up the bigger man before him. Mounting fatigue reduced Taylor’s responses to wild looping shots the challenger was able to evade with ease.
The American pressed hard for the knockout in the closing frames, connecting with a flush uppercut in the 11th round that likely would have floored any lightweight in the world. But the durable Taylor absorbed his opponent’s worst offerings over the final minutes and made it to the bell upright, a testament to his punch resistance and sheer will.
“Josh Taylor is a tough dude and I can see why he beat so many fighters,” said López, who landed 158 of 517 shots (30.6%) compared to 82 of 341 for Taylor (24.0%), according to Compubox’s punch statistics. “But you’ve got to counter the counter-puncher. You’ve got to outsmart the man and get in there, and I did that.”
Taylor’s signature win over José Ramírez in May 2021 made him the first British fighter, and only the fifth man in boxing’s four-belt era, to become an undisputed champion at any weight. But he’d fought just once in the 25 months since, a highly controversial split-decision win in a mandatory defense against the unheralded Jack Catterall, while also swapping out trainer Ben Davidson for Joe McNally. All of it came to a head with a dismal performance on Saturday that suggested he’s regressed from the fighter who rose to fame as the Tartan Tornado, blowing through a line of current or former world champions including Regis Prograis, Ivan Baranchyk and Viktor Postol. To the Scot’s credit, he made no excuses, entertaining the prospect of a rematch while also mulling a climb to welterweight.
“It wasn’t my best,” Taylor said. “The better man won tonight. I’ve got no excuses. I fought to the best of my ability. He was better than me tonight. It is what it is.”
He continued: “I thought it was a close fight. I’d love to do it again. I definitely know I’m better than that, and I know I can beat him still. I’d love to do it again. But he’s the champ, so the ball is in his court.”
López, whose formidable combination of speed, skill and punching power is matched only by his charisma and sense of showmanship, will have no shortage of options in a junior welterweight division that’s heating up with the expected influx of Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, the undisputed lightweight champion and López’s promotional stablemate with Top Rank. Though he quipped during Saturday’s brief press conference that his next fight will take place in a courtroom rather than a prize-ring in the custody battle with his ex-wife.
Having reestablished himself among the sport’s elite and rekindled the outward joy that defined his performances for so long, López quit the scene with a quote from Walt Disney that he invoked as a lesson to future doubters.
“I like the impossible,” he said, “because there is less competition.”
