Josh Taylor says Teofimo Lopez will have to wait to fight him, and dismissed his claims of being undisputed at lightweight.
The 24-year-old American held belts from all four governing bodies but was the WBC ‘franchise’ champion, with Devin Haney the more traditional WBC world lightweight champion.
Lopez lost last year to George Kambosos Jr. which resulted in Lopez and his father deciding to pursue world titles at 140lbs.
He made a public new year’s resolution to become undisputed again, this time at junior welterweight, but Taylor - undisputed at 140lbs - disputes Lopez’s self-described undisputed title.
“Again? Becoming undisputed, again? Taylor said to IFL TV .
“Yeah, I’ve seen that. Well, the thing is he was never undisputed in the first place, so, he’s gonna have to try at some point.”
Taylor’s next fight is against Jack Catterall in a WBO-ordered mandatory defence, with the Scot the heavy favourite. Assuming he comes through with the win, he did not appear desperately keen to grant Lopez a chance, with speculation he wants to move up to welterweight himself.
“He’s got a long queue ahead of him to get that fight,” Taylor said.
“So he can wait all he wants, bark all he wants.”