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Josh Taylor looks ahead to Catterall, wedding bells and a welterweight assault

Josh Taylor punched his way to elite-boxer status with his 140-pound undisputed championship victory over Jose Ramirez. Photo by Mikey Williams/ Top Rank Inc via Getty Images
Fighters Network
03
Jan

Although pound for pound star Josh Taylor fought only once in 2021, he certainly made the most of it by defeating Jose Ramirez to become the undisputed junior welterweight champion of the world.

The Scotsman had been due to close out the year against WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall on December 18, but suffered a knee injury in training that pushed the bout back to February 26.

Since defeating Regis Prograis for the Ring Magazine championship, the WBA title and the Muhammad Ali trophy in October 2019, Taylor has fought just twice – Apinun Khongsong (KO 1) and Ramirez (UD 12) – due to the pandemic.

However, the Edinburgh man is taking things in his stride and remains upbeat regarding his future at elite level.



“I can’t complain; everybody has been in the same predicament I’ve been in,” Taylor (18-0, 13 knockouts) told The Ring. “Should I be further forward in my career? Maybe a little bit but so should everybody. It’s been out of my control. It’s been frustrating.

“I’m a young 31, I’ve not taken much punishment. I don’t get hit too often in sparring. I’m still young, fresh, and there’s plenty of energy and life left in me.”

But before the champion can flesh out his full dance card for 2022, he has a big date lined up outside of the ring and that will take priority.

“I’m getting married in June, so that’ll take a chunk [of time] out,” said Taylor. “I’ll have my stag do, wedding and honeymoon, so that’s going to be a couple of months. Hopefully, I’ll get two [fights] but might squeeze in three depending how we go. In a perfect world I wouldn’t mind getting three in.

“The perfect route for me would be to fight Jack, get the win no matter how it comes, and see what big fights are out there for me next. I’m not going to be short of options. Having four belts, everybody has put a huge target on my back, everybody wants to fight me and take what I’ve got.”

Taylor still feels comfortable making junior welterweight, but hinted that his time in the division he has now conquered is running out.

“I could stay at 140, but I’ve achieved all I can at 140,” said the unbeaten southpaw. “All it is now is defending my belts and not achieving. I want to achieve more greatness in the sport.”

“I’d like to move up to 147 and become a two-weight world champion. Chase some of these big, massive fights, that’s what I want to do. Go straight in with someone like [WBA titleholder Yordenis] Ugas – make a big statement. Hopefully become a unified world champion at welterweight… in an ideal world become undisputed. These are massive, massive goals and way down the line but it’s definitely possible. Go down as a hall of fame fighter, that’s what I want to do.”

 

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @AnsonWainwright

 

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