By Sean Jones: Teofimo Lopez’s dad leaked the game plan for tonight by telling Bill Haney & the media that Teo will be boxing Josh Taylor all night and NOT looking to “kill” him like that had been talked about. Lopez Sr admitted that he “f**ked up” by having Teofimo trying to knock out his opponents recently, which was a mistake. He said that Teofimo (18-1, 13 KOs) would return to how he fought in the amateurs when boxing his opposition instead of trying to obliterate them. That was when he was at his best.
Taylor has the better stamina, so it leaves Teofimo with no choice but to box if he’s to have any shot at winning. Teofimo mostly boxed in his win over Vasyl Lomachenko, but that was against a guy fighting with just one arm due to his shoulder injury.
Taylor isn’t injured, and he’s going to be difficult to outbox. It’s likely that Lopez Sr watched the success Regis Prograis had boxing Taylor from the outside in the second half of their fight in 2019. When Prograis was going to war with Taylor in the first half of the fight, he was getting beaten up and was no match. It was only after Prograis made adjustments by fighting from long range that he found success in the later rounds.
