Dressed in a Scotland football top, sunglasses hanging from the neck, and shorts showcasing slightly sunburnt legs, Josh Taylor looked every bit like a tourist enjoying a New York holiday as he took to the stage at Madison Square Garden for the pre-fight media conference ahead of his world title defence against Teofimo Lopez on Saturday night.
The WBO super-lightweight champion looked relaxed for the most part as he answered questions about his stay so far in the city and his thoughts on the strangely eerie pall of orange smoke that had engulfed the area as a result of wildfires across the border in Canada. So far, so very cordial.
Taylor, though, is never this calm just two days out before a fight and it wasn’t long before he switched from personal to professional mode, from affable to irritated. This was the first time he and Lopez had been in the same venue since the contest was announced and it wasn’t difficult to detect the Pride of Prestonpans becoming increasingly frustrated with his Brooklyn-born opponent’s pontification on matters life, death and everything else in between.
Verbal spats between the pair over the past few months have helped sell this fight but, when asked if he really didn’t like Lopez, Taylor did not soften his words. “I say what I mean and there is genuine dislike there,” said the southpaw. “He’s been disrespectful so for a lot of the words he’s said I’m going to make him pay on Saturday. I can’t wait to get in there and get torn in amongst him. What are we going to see? A Josh Taylor win. That’s all. Possibly by KO, nice and early as well.”
If Taylor looked dressed for a day taking in the New York sights, then Lopez’s attire - white suit, no shirt – suggested he was planning on heading to one of Ibiza’s hippest nightspots. There was grudging respect in moments as the challenger talked about others having avoided Taylor who is, or certainly was, the “kingpin” of the 140lb division, but the former lightweight champion clearly is not a man lacking in confidence or self-belief.
Taylor shot him down for once more using Mike Tyson’s famous old quote about “everyone having a plan until they get punched in the face” and asked if he didn’t have anything original to say. Lopez, who earlier in the build-up had spoken about killing someone in the ring, offered an intriguing riposte.
“I do have a quote that I just made up yesterday,” he started. “’Aim for death for that’s where life begins’”, to which Taylor offered only a stout “no comment”.
Lopez was undeterred. “I think it’s a good one. You aim at death as that’s where life begins. Everyone is scared of death. I don’t know why as we’re all going to die. But at least if I die, I’m dying for something that means something. Something that will last forever. That’s what the greats are all about. Something that you [Taylor] don’t really know.”
Taylor can be reflective himself when the moment is right and he laid out what fighting at this venue for the first time – where he will wear tartan shorts in tribute to the late Ken Buchanan – means to him.
“For me this is a dream come true,” said the 32 year-old. “When I started out as a young kid, you always dreamed of coming out Stateside and fighting in venues like this. This is the mecca of boxing. Fighting in a place like this, topping the bill and bringing the travelling fans here. The Tartan Army is coming over. I can’t wait to get in there on Saturday and make my dream a reality. This clown here is in my way. He’s just another piece of cannon fodder, that’s all he is.”
There was no traditional head-to-head afterwards, with a burly New York cop wheeled in to provide an amble obstacle between the two fighters in the aftermath of what had been described somewhat understatedly in a press release as “the intense pre-fight rhetoric between the two combatants”.
That didn’t stop Taylor from several times moving towards Lopez, although it would have been easier to scale the Empire State Building from the outside than circumnavigating the powerful policeman blocking his way. Perhaps sensibly, the Scot didn’t try too hard as the press conference came to an abrupt but, mercifully, peaceful end.
What did we learn about the fight itself? Not a huge amount. Taylor was similarly fired up and cocky before his fight with Jack Catterall and followed that with the poorest performance of his career. And good luck to anyone who can work out what goes on inside Lopez’s mind. The weigh-in follows on Friday before the real stuff gets underway on Saturday night. It is shaping up to be a cracker.
