Josh Taylor says he is looking to send Teofimo Lopez into retirement and vows to expose the American when they clash in New York on June 10.
Taylor puts his WBO super lightweight title on the line against mandatory challenger and former unified lightweight champion, Lopez at Madison Square Garden, live on Sky Sports.
The former undisputed champion, who relinquished three of his world titles, believes that his rival is still struggling for confidence after a bruising defeat to George Kambosos Jr in November 2021 and insists he will box for the final time when they clash six weeks on Saturday.
“That doing he got from Kambosos certainly dented his confidence and his ego,” the 32-year-old said on the Last Stand Podcast.
“His ego has taken a massive hit.
“You can see he’s a bit mentally fragile anyway.
“With this fight, I plan on retiring this guy.
“I plan on giving him that much of a beating that he doesn’t think he’s that guy anymore.
“He’s already got those doubts, I’m going to cement them and retire him.”
‘The Tartan Tornado’ will end a near 16 month lay-off when he steps into the ring with Lopez, his last bout being a contentious split decision victory over Jack Catterall, where he had to climb off the canvas.
Taylor was expected to rematch Catterall earlier this year, however the Scot sustained a foot injury and was subsequently ordered to defend his belt against the 25-year-old.
Lopez has won two on the bounce since moving up to 140lbs after losing to Kambosos Jr, climbing off the deck himself to edge out Sandor Martin in December by split decision.
Although the southpaw champion views ’The Takeover’ as a tough assignment, he insists that he will expose the flaws in his game.
“He’s a good fighter,” he said.
“He does a lot of things really, really good.
“He’s very athletic. He’s quick. He’s explosive.
“He’s got good punching combinations and things like that.
“But I see that he makes a lot of mistakes as well. He makes a lot of errors. He leaves himself wide open.
“I’ve got a lot of holes in his game that I’m going to exploit.
“I see a lot of things that I can expose him with in on fight night.”
