Josh Taylor thinks fight against Lopez won't go past 8 rounds

When Josh Taylor makes the journey from his native Scotland to New York City this summer to face Teofimo Lopez for the WBO 140-pound championship, he will be following in the footsteps of his late forefather, Ken Buchanan.

Naturally, there is one significant distinction between Taylor's situation and that of his illustrious predecessor: Taylor anticipates victory in his contest.

The first undisputed boxing champion of Scotland, Buchanan, travelled to America in 1972 to take on Roberto Duran, but was controversially defeated after Duran down him with a low punch at the conclusion of the 13th round. After the interval, Buchanan was unable to get out of his corner.

Buchanan passed away earlier this month at the age of 77.

“My fight with Teofimo Lopez ends up the same way, except it’s me knocking him out,” Taylor told analyst Mark Kriegel during an ESPN broadcast of a 135-pound bout between Shakur Stevenson and Shuichiro Yoshino at Prudential Center in Stevenson’s hometown of Newark, New Jersey. “I’m completely 100% confident that this fight doesn’t go past six to eight rounds.”

Taylor-Lopez is set for June 10 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

The ESPN programme marked Taylor and Lopez's first-ever "face-to-face" interaction. Lopez appeared via satellite from Las Vegas, where he was attending the UFC 287 event that featured Israel Adesanya as the main event.

Both fighters have experienced setbacks in their professional careers: In a contentious victory over Jack Catterall last year, Taylor was clearly in difficulty. Since his shocking defeat to George Kambosos in their lightweight title unification match in 2021, Lopez has not appeared the same.