Josh Taylor is out to prove his performance against Jack Catterall was an anomaly.
The former fully unified 140-pound champion from Scotland is scheduled to defend his lone WBO belt against Teofimo Lopez on June 10 in New York City at either Madison Square Garden or the Garden’s smaller sister venue, the Hulu Theater.
Taylor was originally on track to fight England’s Catterall in a rematch of their highly controversial undisputed title bout last year which Taylor won on points. The rematch, however, was plagued by several postponements, the latest of which occurred last month when Taylor had reportedly suffered a foot injury (torn plantar fascia).
Now, instead of pursuing a fight with Catterall, the Scotsman will look to make a statement against Brooklyn’s Lopez, the former unified lightweight champion.
After his patchy performance against Catterall, Taylor parted ways with coach Ben Davison and linked up with Joe McNally.
In a recent interview, the southpaw Taylor vowed he would return to his “old ways,” back to the form that saw him collect all four major 140-pound titles. Under Davison, Taylor, known for his motor and aggression, felt his style was being compromised.
“Yeah, just getting back to my old self,” Taylor told iD Boxing. “You know I just felt like before I … sort of felt my style was trying to get changed a little bit. I kind of got caught between two styles and stuff and I just felt like I was getting taken away from what my best attributes are a little bit too much. I just felt like at the end I needed to change something, I needed to change.
“That’s nothing to do anything with Ben or anything like that, I’ve learned a lot from Ben as well, and he improved me in a lot of ways as well. I improved a lot under Ben too and learned new things from Benn too, it’s just that I was getting steered away from what my style is and what my attributes are, getting changed instead of adding, that sort of thing. And I just felt like I had to change, I had to change my whole surroundings.”