WBO junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor is very confident ahead of his upcoming world title defense against Teofimo Lopez.

Taylor flew down to Newark this past Saturday night, to sit ringside for the lightweight bout between Shakur Stevenson and Shuichiro Yoshino at the Prudential Center.

Taylor will defend his belt against Lopez on June 10 at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The Scottish star had assumed that he would go face to face with Lopez last Saturday to officially announce their fight - but that didn't happen with Lopez appearing by video link to trade words.

"I've come over here to say hello to him and he's went away hiding," Taylor told Sky Sports.

"I flew over halfway across the world to come say hello to him and pull him up really. See what are you going to say, what time is it? But he's not here. He's not showed up. He's got no backside. He can't hide too much longer. We've got eight, nine weeks left, I'll just have to wait till then or when the press conference is."

Taylor believes Lopez has become mentally weak in the aftermath of his last few performances.

Lopez's status in the sport was catapulted in 2020, when he shocked Vasiliy Lomachenko with a twelve round decision. to capture three of the four major titles at 140. But Lopez was upset in his first title defense the following year, at the hands of George Kambosos.

Taylor is not convinced by Lopez's statements during their most recent war of words.

"A little bit of bravado, a sort of front and then you see the fragility of him on camera in his last couple of fights," Taylor said. "So you can see he's a little bit fragile and a little bit mentally weak. So I can definitely use that to my advantage.

"He might be doubting himself, maybe thinking I'm not as good as I thought I was or as big and strong as I thought I was. Putting a lot of pressure on himself by talking so much nonsense that he talks, him and his dad. Putting a lot of pressure on his own shoulders. So I think that's maybe got to him a bit in recent times. I do think he's a little bit fragile mentally sometimes. Yes I do."