The June 10th world title clash between WBO Super Lightweight champion Josh Taylor and former unified Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez was already palpably exciting but is now expected to become an even more compelling fight given the risen tension between both fighters and the slew of controversial comments made by Lopez in the build-up to the fight. With the pair looking to make their own individual statements to the division and the boxing world, neither of the two have reigned back their animosity for each other that will likely set off more fireworks at the Madison Square Garden in New York City (where they will fight) than New Year’s Eve.

The first official exchange between the two was a mildly heated back-and-forth between the two fighters where both of them seemed to highly regard their own ability to net home a victory. With both of their careers undoubtedly set to take a blow if one of them loses, the tension between the pair seemed apparent when the two faced off on ESPN.

“It’s never personal. It’s business.” Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KO’s) responded in his joint interview held with Teofimo Lopez (18-1, 13 KO’s).

“This is the fight game, he’s a good fighter (but) he’s been talking a lot of smack about me for a couple of years, and now you’ve got to be careful what you wish for.“

When Teofimo Lopez was asked on the best traits that Josh Taylor possessed in the ring, Lopez chose to not acknowledge his future opponent’s ability with a cold and mocking “nothing” for an answer.

“He never fought Teofimo.” Was Lopez’ curt yet confident explanation of his previous response.

In the weeks that followed, though the two fighters had not talked to each other directly, plenty of barbs continued to be exchanged with Teofimo Lopez noticeably spilling a rather unhinged tirade towards ESPN and African American fighters, which some interpreted as racist.

“This is the thing, commentators are the ones that convince everybody someone else is winning.” Lopez said in a 3-hour long interview with Punsh Drunk Boxing. “So watch the Kambosos fight without the commentators, watch my last fight without the commentators, and you will see the results.

“At the fighters meeting I dissed Andre Ward and Timothy Bradley in front of ESPN’s production for all the affiliation and corruption that they do, and what happened? I put more weight on my back and all they was talking about (was) when I slipped with the first knockdown.” A frustrated Lopez said.

“I slipped, they called it right away. What did Bradley say? ‘He’s hurt, he’s hurt!’, so I don’t sugarcoat sh**. All these motherf****** di** ride and they suck di**, sorry for my language. But that is the problem, I don’t ride off that.“

Teofimo Lopez continued with a rant about ESPN whilst suggesting that “black fighters” were being pushed ahead of him when it came to promotion and marketing.

“And just to put it on the spot, this is my last fight on ESPN.” Teofimo Lopez affirmed. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry. This is why this fight means everything to me. If they want the Black fighters they can keep them. I brought Bud Lite to Top Rank.”

Teofimo Lopez’ comments about “black fighters” have been further clarified by his father, Teofimo Lopez Sr., in an interview with Mill City Boxing in which he maintained that his son had not made the comments because of any supposed racial bias.

“You know what it is, when Devin Haney came into Top Rank, they promoted him more than they did my son, and he feels a little type of way, you know.” Teofimo Lopez Sr. explained.

“You’ve got to understand this; we’re fighting the top dudes bro, and we got to get some respect for that, you know, and he just feels some type of way, like they just wanna promote ― in his mind ― the black fighters.“

In his interview, Teofimo Lopez Sr. referred to when Top Rank signed the current undisputed Lightweight champion, Devin Haney (29-0, 15 KO’s), to their stable in March of 2022, explicitly to face then-unified Lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. (20-2, 10 KO’s). Haney subsequently became the undisputed Lightweight champion in the same year against George Kambosos Jr. ― who had defeated Teofimo Lopez the previous year in November. In the subsequent rematch that was held between Devin Haney and George Kambosos Jr., Haney scored an even more decisive unanimous decision victory in which he successfully retained all his titles.

Notably, Haney became a part of the Top Rank roster after a dominant victory over former world champion Joseph Diaz Jr. (32-4-1, 15 KO’s) in December of 2021 ― roughly a month after Teofimo Lopez suffered his loss to George Kambosos Jr. While Haney went on to immediately fight for undisputed following his signing, Teofimo Lopez made a successful return to the ring at 140 pounds where he stopped Super Lightweight contender Pedro Campa (34-3-1, 23 KO’s).

Aside from Devin Haney, Top Rank also promotes a number of other Black or African-American fighters who are deemed as top talents in their respective divisions including former Super Featherweight unified champion Shakur Stevenson (20-0, 10 KO’s), Lightweight prospect Keyshawn Davis (8-0, 6 KO’s) and Heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (14-0, 14 KO’s) who are coincidentally considered close to each other.

Though not having directly referred to these fighters, it seems apparent that Teofimo Lopez has had a bad taste in his mouth due to his previous status as a unified Lightweight champion being overlooked for fighters with less achievements and experience, despite his own young age of 25.

Teofimo Lopez’ statement about “black fighters” would have not been near as scrutinized if it hadn’t been for the aforementioned fighters going on to impress in 2022 and 2023 as top-quality talents; with Jared Anderson impressing greatly with his 100% knockout ratio against decent Heavyweights ― and now looking to step up against a viable Heavyweight contender in Zhan Kossobutskiy (19-0, 18 KO’s) who he will face in July, Keyshawn Davis moving up the 135 lbs rankings at a lightning-quick pace with his recent resume of solid opponents, Shakur Stevenson making a successful debut at Lightweight with a stoppage win over unbeaten Japanese contender Shuichiro Yoshino (16-1, 12 KO’s), and Devin Haney becoming undisputed in the Lightweight division ― and now set for a blockbuster fight with Vasyl Lomachenko this weekend.

Meanwhile, Teofimo Lopez’ argument that he had fought top fighters also seems incorrect being that he lost to George Kambosos Jr. and his best opponent thus far can be considered to have been Vasyl Lomachenko (17-2, 11 KO’s) who he fought three years ago. Lopez’ subsequent opponents after Kambosos in Pedro Campa and Sandor Martin (40-3, 13 KO’s) ― though not journeymen by any means ― are not exactly the ‘top of their class’ when it comes to the Junior Welterweight division with the likes of Regis Prograis (28-1, 24 KO’s), Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez (28-1, 18 KO’s) still active within the division.

While Teofimo Lopez was embroiled in controversy, Josh Taylor has been able to input his own thoughts surrounding Lopez’ comments about an apparent racial bias from Top Rank in favor of Black fighters ― which ironically had been disputed the year prior by a former fighter of Top Rank, Terence Crawford (39-0, 30 KO’s), who had launched a lawsuit which argued the exact opposite of what Lopez suggested.

“I just think it’s a bit pathetic.” Josh Taylor said in an interview with Boxing King Media in response to Teofimo Lopez’ ‘racial bias’ comments. “It’s like uh, ‘Look at me, pay more attention to me, please’, begging for attention.

“Maybe he feels he’s not getting enough attention that he thinks he’s worth, or something like that, but trying to race bait, basically, calling people out ― playing a race card, effectively, I just think it’s a joke.

“It’s a bit pathetic for me. I just think, ‘What’s the point in that?’. I don’t think he’s all there, to be honest. I don’t know what to make of it. I thought it was really random. I don’t know why you would come away and say something like that.” Taylor said.

In another interview held with sports television presenter Brian Custer a week ago on his podcast, “The Last Stand”, Josh Taylor drilled into the ‘mental weakness’ that he claimed he sensed in Teofimo Lopez ― prior to his controversial comments.

“That doing he had from Kambosos certainly did in his confidence and his ego.” Came Taylor’s response to Brian Custer’s assessment of Teofimo Lopez’ supposed mental fragility. “His ego’s taken a massive hit and you can see he’s a bit mentally fragile anyway, so with me, in this fight, I’m planning 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 them doubts. I’m going to cement them and retire him.” Taylor promised.

As mentioned before, the two will face each other on Saturday, June 10th at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City which has given rise to countless of breathtaking fights between the best boxers in the world, including ― most recently ― the first bout between Katie Taylor (21-0, 6 KO’s) and Amanda Serrano (44-2, 30 KO’s), amongst many other fights.