Josh Taylor reveals the main reason why he lost again Teofimo Lopez

Josh Taylor claims that after the fifth round of his fight with Teofimo Lopez, he started to see a noticeable drop in his skills.

Last Saturday at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Scotland's Taylor was defeated by former unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez and lost his WBO championship. Although Taylor started out strong in the early rounds, Lopez never wavered once he had found his rhythm. By the late rounds, Lopez seemed to be close to getting the fight stopped. Lopez ultimately prevailed by a score of 115-113, 115-113, and 117-111.

The southpaw Taylor, who gave no excuses in the post-fight interview, said his legs were “gone” by the back end of the first half of the fight. Taylor also blamed himself for getting away from his corner’s game plan by disregarding his jab and relying solely on his left cross.

“After about four or five rounds, I told [trainer] Joe [McNally] in the corner, my legs are away,” Josh recounted to Boxing News. “My legs are gone here. And because I was having success with the left hand. I was kind of loading up a bit, stopped working off the front hand, and I strayed away from the game plan and never executed it that well.

“So from then on I had a couple of rounds off, then I had a good couple of rounds [in] nine, ten, and then the championship rounds, I just had nothing left. I had zero energy left. I was in impeccable shape. Just fucking exhausted.

Taylor said he now expects to move up to the welterweight ranks.