two losses in row where does taylor go from here

Catterall won't care about the rematch just yet, he'll have another crack at a world title early 2024 and can see him fighting someone like Martin next in November.

 

Move up to 147 go for a big fish, get a payday and then retire. He had a unreal run, a run that was within a short period. He seems to have kind of crashed and burned.

 

2 wins at 147 against half decent opposition and Arum will get him a title shot - probably the WBO. Did it with Teo after a defeat and got Loma back in the reckoning quickly too. Some or all of the belts will be vacant in the next 12-18 months.

Gives him a few more fights with his new team too before going for a belt.

 

JT should step up and have a crack at 147lbs.
He absolutely must rematch JC. It’s a must win fight but will go a long way at restoring his credibility especially in the U.K.

Showed a lot of heart against a more explosive faster boxer in Teo. JT just seemed to fade and become more predictable second half of the fight. Showed his heart and chin taking some massive shots particularly that one late in the 12th would have flattened most Junior Weterweights.

He can come again if the fire is still burning.

 

Catterall won’t leave the 140 division when he can probably get a title shot in the next year.

Taylor needs a few wins and a chance to gel with his new team more then go for a world title next summer.

There's quite a few lesser known fighters high up in the 147 rankings who aren’t attached to any of the big promoters who they'll be able to get as an opponent for Taylor - fighters like Jin Sasaki and Tulani Mbenge are ranked in the top 10 for example - so he'll easily be able to navigate his way up the rankings. Ekow Essuman is 14 which shows the talent pool in that division isn't great.

I presume Arum will take Taylor the WBO route as the top 15 is absolutely crap. There's only Ortiz of any note in there and he's further up with the WBA so will most likely go that route.

 

It's not even a fight you have to score, just watch with a beer and Josh got schooled and humiliated, nearly stopped!

I think he's done

 

Bit harsh. Got beat by an elite fighter, no shame in it. Wouldn't say he was humiliated at all.

 

He went into the fight a favourite, bigger guy, saying he was going to ko him, work him so hard his lungs will explode, he could barely even land anything meaningful on him, got a schooling in the end. Teo wasn't looking elite going into the fight, struggled with lesser guys in his career, I know styles make fights but still Taylor was seen as a bit of a monster by many going into this fight with a point prove. Don't think theres anything wrong saying he got humilated, even people picking Teo to win wouldn't have thought it was going to be so one sided, forget the scorecards. The layoff wouldn't have helped but as Josh said no excuses.

 

He had an incredible run all the way through to the Ramirez fight at 140 and I've really enjoyed following his career.

On the back of the last 2 performances though, that's not the Josh Taylor we've become accustomed to and achieved what he did inside 17 or 18 fights which is practically unheard of.

He kept his word in giving Catterall the first fight after the step aside agreement and the rematch was on until the injury. He wasn't gifted his 4 belts he won them all the hard way and having relinquished 3 for the Catterall rematch to take place, I can't really blame him for not wanting to drop the remaining 1 when the injury occurred hence taking the Teo fight.

Oh and by the way, defending his titles in NYC against a top level fighter like Lopez shows the cojones he has.

From what we're hearing though he was on fire in the gym in the lead up to Lopez on the weekend but make no mistake about it his last 2 performances have gone flat which does make you think that making 140 is taking something out of him. He needs the move up to 147.

 

Great post.

Taylor is a high energy, high output fighter so covid, injury, inactivity etc is a nightmare for a fighter like him as he'll lose his sharpness.

Listened to his interview with Andy McCart yesterday where he said he was putting away sparring partners and felt in good physical shape but did touch on a few things - extensive media commitments that stopped his training for periods at a time and stuff and then realised it sounded like he was making excuses and stopped

Joe McNally said the foot injury meant cardio work started late but again ended it with 'but it's no excuse'.

I'm excited to see Taylor at 147. It could be that all the belts (or at least 2/3) are vacant in 12-18 months once the Spence v Crawford fights are done. If Spence wins he'll move up.

 

I agree the father is a complete nutter. He wants to get well shot of him out of his corner, but I doubt he will when he makes his inevitable return within 12 months.

 

To be fair there's a clip of Lopez Sr saying pre-fight that he’d put too much pressure on Lopez Jr and was guilty of trying to get him to fight rather than box and that this fight they were going back to 'boxing'. Hopefully he's mellowing but I doubt it haha.