Teofimo Lopez beat Josh Taylor in June 2023 to capture The Ring and WBO junior welterweight titles. He made three defenses before losing to Shakur Stevenson on "The Ring 6" card at Madison Square Garden, New York, on January 31.

Taylor, who was The Ring and undisputed champion from 2021-2023 before retiring last year, was impressed with what he saw from the precociously talented American, who advanced to No. 3 in The Ring's pound-for-pound ratings.

"I thought it was very good, I knew it was gonna happen because of my experience with Teo myself," Taylor told The Ring. "[Stevenson] was very good; he stood in the pocket and used his defense and patient boxing. It sounds stupid but he was patient but aggressive. He was very sharp with the counters, he was stepping to him, he wasn't moving around too much and created angles. It was good to watch."

The Scottish boxer, who now commentates for DAZN, rates Stevenson very highly.

"He's very good, [we're] still to find someone who is to properly take him into the trenches and make him think and adjust mid-fight," he said.

"I've not seen much out there [to challenge him]. I can't see anyone beating him around that weight class."

However, Taylor believes the bigger challenges will come for the four-weight world champion when he moves up to welterweight.

"There's [Devin] Haney there, Ryan Garcia there's still a few fighters who could make big fights," he said.

He also doesn't feel it is fair to write off Lopez, who has been a two-weight world champion, in a productive career.

"Just cause a fighter takes a defeat, it doesn't mean their finished," he said. "All the greats, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, [Marvin] Hagler, [Roberto] Duran they've all got multiple loses on their record. What does a loss mean? It just means you lost on the night.

"This is what I think boxing has become and not for the better. Everybody is like, 'It's a loss, it's the end of their career.' C'mon look at the greats, apart from Floyd Mayweather, who else has retired undefeated? Joe Calzaghe, [Terence] Crawford, out of how many hundreds of [top] boxers. It doesn't happen very often.

"If you take a loss, so what. As long you still feel you're performing at your level, what the hell is a loss? It's only the boy was better on the night. Unless you get a loss and you're totally outclassed, hurt and dropped, maybe it's the conversation then but if you're getting pipped, so what."