Joshua James Wiliams Taylor vs. Teófimo Andrés López Rivera

Taylor carries himself in a strange way for a 140 pounder coming off of a gift decision over an unheralded fighter. Quit the badass act man, you're a Superlightweight FFS. I don't know man, something is off seeing little guys acting like tough guys. Dude, you're small, people watch for the technical display.

 

Not an unreasonable post.

I would disagree with respect to his skill set. While his defense is rather basic, he's certainly not reckless or defensively irresponsible.

Offensively, he's more talented than you give him credit for. Taylor can fight at multiple ranges, displays good punch variety and selection, and punches hard enough to hurt or drop an opponent without ove-rcommittng on his shots.

Nor do I agree that he relies on size to bulldoze or overwhelm smaller opponents. Perhaps I'm mis-remembering, but I don't recall Taylor having a decsive size advantage over Prograis or Ramirez. Indeed Ramirez is just about the same height and by some accounts has a longer reach.

 

I like Taylor here. Teo simply has no more advantages here at this weight. He's gonna be dog walked against every high level guy IMO

 

Taylor is going to kick Teo’s arse. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Teo quit or his corner pull him out in between one of the later rounds. I was impressed with Teo’s win against Loma but since then he’s been shite and in the last fight (which he deserved to lose) when he asked does he still have it, it shows very clearly that he is done mentally.

 

It's pretty clear that Taylor is a better fighter than Lopez. The only caveat is if Taylor really struggles with the 140 pound limit. More than a year ago Josh was talking about how difficult making 140 was. I can't believe it's become easier in the ensuing 12 months.

I am rooting for Lopez but Taylor was so good against Prograis and Ramirez I have a hard time seeing Lopez winning.