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Last month in Las Vegas, Josh Taylor made history when he pulled off a twelve round unanimous decision over Jose Ramirez to unify the IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO junior welterweight titles.
Taylor becomes one of the few males fighters in history to unify his entire division in the four belt era.
Taylor has several options in front of him – including a mandatory defense against the WBO’s top man, Jack Catterall. And there is also the possibility of moving up to the welterweight division.
Taylor explains that he doesn’t have any issues with making the junior welterweight limit and he’s not in any rush to jump up in weight.
“I could also spend my entire career at 140-pounds. I’m not in a rush to go up to 147. I’m making the weight comfortably. But, me being me, I’m very ambitious. I now want to become a two-weight world champion. And that would be me really cementing my place in the history books. I’m an ambitious fighter and that’s what I want to do, keep setting new goals,” Taylor told The Scotsman.
In a few recent interviews – lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez took a few shots at Taylor, claiming the Scottish fighter is scared to face him.
In response, Taylor once again rejected Lopez’s claim as “undisputed champion.”
Lopez holds the IBF, WBA, WBO lightweight titles. And he also holds the WBC’s “Franchise” title. The regular WBC champion at the weight is Devin Haney.
For Lopez to become the undisputed champion, Taylor makes it clear that he needs to beat Haney.
In 2019, Haney held the WBC’s interim-title. He was made the full champion when titleholder Vasiliy Lomachenko refused to face him in a mandatory fight.
The WBC would make Lomachenko the “Franchise” champion and elevated Haney to full champion status.
Last year, Lopez defeated Lomachenko in a fight where the WBC allowed the “Franchise” label to change hands.
When the “Franchise” concept was created, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman explained that it wasn’t a real title and was more of a highly regarded status in their organization.
The Franchise title was non-transferable in defeat – but obviously the WBC changed their own rules for Lopez-Lomachenko.
Based on the confused series of events at 135, Taylor believes Lopez needs to secure one more belt to be a legit undisputed champion.
“Lopez is saying that he’s an undisputed world champion when he isn’t – he only has three of the belts. He still has business to take care of at lightweight but he’s obviously just bumping his gums because he wants the big fights, which is understandable. If that happens, it happens,” Taylor said.
“I’d happily take the fight and cut him down to size. I’d bring him down to earth with a bang. I genuinely think I’d beat him up if we ever meet but I’ve no real interest in Teofimo Lopez. How they can have the audacity to say I’m scared of him is… it’s just a joke.”