JOSH TAYLOR has had a confounding four months which has resulted in him completely altering the course of his career.
Since his controversial win over Jack Catterall in February, Taylor has been the target of abuse, derision and insults unlike anything he has ever experienced before.
Fellow boxers, experts and casual fans have decried the judges’ decision to award Taylor the victory, which saw him remain undisputed super-lightweight world champion.
Taylor’s initial plan had been to move up from 140lbs, at which he fought Catterall, to 147lbs immediately but the backlash the Prestonpans fighter has encountered since his victory has led to a U-turn, which will see him remain at 140lbs for at least his next two fights.
And it is for one reason, and one reason only.
“I want to shut everyone up,” says Taylor. “The only reason I’m staying at the weight is I want to fight Catterall again.
“I don’t think it was the wrong decision [in February] but I want to shut everyone up. I want to prove that was an off night for me and that I’m one of the best fighters on the planet.
“Because of all the stick and abuse I’ve been getting, and the way Jack’s been too, mouthing off and moaning, I just want to shut his mouth. The single reason I’m staying at the weight is to shut him and everyone else up.”
Taylor’s rematch with Catterall will not be immediate; first, he will take on Jose Zepeda, who is the mandatory challenger for Taylor’s WBC title. That bout is likely to take place in September or October, before a highly-anticipated re-match with Catterall is almost certainly agreed upon.
And that would, hopes Taylor, put to bed the accusations that he is running scared of returning to the ring with the Englishman, a suggestion that, Taylor says, is laughable.
“It’s frustrating because anyone who knows me knows I’d fight with my shadow in an empty house. I’m not scared to fight anybody,” he says. “But boxing fans are so fickle, they change like the weather. Often, they don’t understand the business and then it starts getting personal. And if they didn’t have that keyboard in front of them, there’s no way they’d say it.
“Everything I’ve done, being the first guy from the UK to become undisputed world champion, in only 18 fights – has that been forgotten?
“My run up to the Catterall fight had been defeating undefeated champion after undefeated champion, I beat them all. And I beat Jack too, on a really bad performance so it’s quite funny how quickly people forget.
“It would have been Jack before Zepeda if it could have been worked out, without the boxing politics and mandatories getting in the way. I’d rather be fighting Jack next but Zepeda is a big fight and people who are talking it down are people who don’t know the business. He’s a top-level fighter.”
Taylor has had a welcome distraction from boxing over recent days. He married long-term partner, Danielle, on Saturday and is currently enjoying a “mini” honeymoon – the impending Zepeda fight kiboshed any hopes of a longer holiday until the end of the year – before a new documentary about Taylor airs on BBC Scotland tomorrow evening.
The programme follows the 31-year-old in the months leading up to the Catterall fight and gives an insight into Taylor’s life in a much more thorough manner than can be gleaned from social media.
“It’s exciting having a documentary made about me and I’m looking forward to how it’s going to be received,” he says. “I think it’s good and for it to be focused around the Catterall fight, which is my worst fight, because it shows the emotions I go through in a training camp – you go from being really high to very low. There’s a lot of rawness and honesty in there.
“As for social media, I’ve signed out of Twitter so I don’t see the comments now. I did that about a month ago and I feel much better for it. When you see these comments, you end up biting back. You’ll see one that’ll really p**s you off and so I thought just come off it and I can’t see it.
“The thing is, when I’m going round the streets in Edinburgh or wherever, I don’t get anything like that. One person said they thought Jack did enough to win but that’s fine, people are entitled to their opinion and there’s no problem with that. But I don’t get any abuse on the street.”
The documentary also reveals that Taylor believes his time in the sport at the highest level is limited.
He remains keen to move up to 147lbs following his rematch with Catterall, where he could potentially face some of the greats of modern-day boxing, including Terence Crawford and Errol Spence, which would also, surely, come accompanied by a significant pay-day.
And Taylor believes that is no more than he deserves.
“Two or three years isn’t long,” he says. “After I fight Zepeda, then Catterall, I’ll move up to 147 and get some big fights.
“I’ve given a lot of my life to this sport, sacrificed a lot of my life. I feel like I’ve paid my dues and I’ve earned the right to be in really big fights now, I think I deserve to be in life-changing, lucrative fights. And I’ve got the talent too; I believe I can beat these guys.”
“Josh Taylor: Portrait of a Fighter” is on BBC Scotland tomorrow at 10pm and will also be available on iPlayer
