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Boxing

Teofimo Lopez: I'll fight Josh Taylor, but not in Britain

Alexander Netherton
Teofimo Lopez: I'll fight Josh Taylor, but not in BritainDAZN
The two unified fighters could meet to contest Taylor's undisputed honour.

Unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez is ready to move up to super lightweight in order to face Josh Taylor but is not willing to stage the fight in Britain.

Taylor became the undisputed division champion when he defeated Jose Ramirez at the weekend, and it has been suggested he put on the pounds to meet WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford.

However it appears that Lopez is prepared to make the same change, with only Devin Haney’s WBC belt currently not in his possession.

Lopez told the Mirror: "I won't take that fight in the UK.

"Not because I don't believe I would beat him in the UK, it's just that I can see how much of the animosity there is from folks caring that I'm 'not undisputed' at 135, so I could just see the favouritism over there.

"That fight will be somewhere over here, but at the end of the day I'm slowly becoming a cash cow in this division and these guys can make a better paycheque fighting me where I choose.

"I do eventually want to fight in the UK, however, I don't want to five anybody the upper hand over me, I've done that numerous times so the whole thing now is about playing my cards right.

"But I do want to make those fights happen, though."

The 23-year-old American admitted he was impressed by Taylor’s performance at the weekend, and said he would like to make the fight happen before any move up the weights by the Scot.

"I've been so focused on myself lately," he explained. "I don't focus on the competition that's around - just put them in front of me and I'll beat them, that's my whole thing.

"Josh Taylor did what he had to do, it was a great fight and a great event, kudos to him and Top Rank on what they did.

"The whole thing now is about making those type of fights happen and hopefully these guys are willing to step up, because at the end of the day 16 fights in I haven't said no to one fight that was given to me.

"I'm a man of my word and I carry my balls very tight when I go into that ring, but I can just sense the urgency of them not wanting to fight me.

"They're already talking about moving up to 147lbs, so the whole thing is I just want to take these things one fight at a time and hopefully we can make the fight happen.

"I'm undisputed at 135, Josh Taylor is undisputed at 140, we can make that fight happen and Teofimo Lopez can become the two-time undisputed world champion back-to-back; it's the GOAT."