TAYLOR: “IT’S BEEN A CRAZY, RAPID RISE”
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 01 Dec 2019
28-year-old Josh Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs), WBSS Season 2 Super-Lightweight Ali Trophy winner, reflects on his massive achievements in just four years of pro boxing.
“I’ve been concentrating on what I’ve been doing and going from fight to fight,” Taylor tells in Boxing Monthly’s December issue. “It won’t be until I get a little bit of time away from boxing that I’ll be able to look back and go: ‘Wow! This is what I’ve achieved. It’s been a crazy, rapid rise.”
Taylor turned pro in July 2015 after an amateur career taking in selection for the 2012 Olympics and winning gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the light welterweight division. Four years later the Scotsman boasts an incredible resume: Unbeaten, Ali Trophy winner, unified WBA & IBF world champion, Ring Magazine champion, potential fighter of the year. All achieved through competing in the World Boxing Super Series culminating with the epic final against USA’s Regis Prograis at the O2 in London late October.
Next on the Tartan Tornado’s radar is another American, José Ramirez, the London 2012 Olympian, who holds the WBC and WBO titles.
“I would like the Ramirez fight next,” says Taylor. “I’d really like to go and chase all the other belts, grab them and call myself number one and the best in the division. It’s not in my nature to have easy fights. Hopefully, I can get Ramirez because I need something to get up for and that’s one I definitely get up for. It should be relatively straight forward to make.
“I think it would be an easier fight, I really do. I think Prograis had a lot more to his game, a lot more variety and he was very hard to hit. He was strong and had the full package, whereas Ramirez is a lot simpler to work out.”
Ramirez faces Viktor Postol – a fighter Taylor defeated in 2018 – in February.
Check out the full Josh Taylor interview, where he also tells about containing personal grief during the build-up for the Ali Trophy final, here: https://www.boxingmonthly.com/current-edition/
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