Former undisputed world champion Josh Taylor desperate to dine at boxing's top table again
Josh Taylor embarks on his journey of becoming a two-weight world champion in Glasgow this weekend.
The 34-year-old makes his debut at welterweight against Ekow Essuman at the Hydro tomorrow night, almost four years to the day since he cleaned up the super lightweight division in Las Vegas with a memorable victory over Jose Ramirez.
He's dined at boxing's top table once before and boy he is determined to do it all over again.
The Prestonpans puncher hasn't fought in 12 months since suffering the second defeat of his professional career, old foe Jack Catterall sealing a unanimous victory at the First Direct Arena in Leeds last May.
However, Taylor has had time to reflect on a whirlwind decade - he switched to the professional ranks in 2015 - that culminated in being crowned undisputed world champion in 2021 - the first Briton to do so in the modern four belt-era.
And his enthusiasm to reach those heights once more has not waned.
"At 140lbs what else was left for me to do? I'd completed boxing in the sense I'd won everything at that weight you could win," Taylor explained. "What else was there for me to do in terms of setting challenges and new goals? There was nothing. What there was, though, was moving up and beginning an assault to becoming a two-time two-weight world champion. And that's what I plan on doing. I need to take out this guy on Saturday first.
"Training has been gruesome and hard work, but this week has felt like I'm on holiday with no dieting and cutting weight, going in saunas, sweatsuits and getting the last bit of water out of you. There's been none of that.
"I'm full of energy, have got the spring in my step and can't wait to get going tomorrow and get this journey rebooted. I need to take care of business this weekend and then move onto bigger fights in the future.
"I feel like the way I've been performing; sparring, the guys we've been getting in at the gym, if I perform how I have been it won't go the distance. I haven't done anything at welterweight and a lot of people are writing me off, but I've got a lot of fire in my belly to prove those people wrong. This is Josh Taylor 2.0 and it starts tomorrow.
"The Hydro has been my home since the Commonwealth Games as I've had most of my big fights here so I'm looking forward to getting back. It's been a while so I'm excited to put on a good show."
The Capital's Lee McGregor is also in hot pursuit of a world title shot when he faces off against compatriot and Bearsden's Nathaniel Collins for the vacant WBC Silver featherweight title.
The 28-year-old has endued a stop-start career of late, but delivered a scintillating display in Saudi Arabia in December to overpower Issac Lowe on the undercard of Tyson Fury's heavyweight defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
And the former British and European bantamweight champion appreciates the potential rewards should he prevail tomorrow night.
"It's a massive fight," McGregor said. "These are the reasons why we started boxing as young kids. You dream about this kind of night. I've prepared hard and am ready to leave it all in the ring. I feel like the best prepared Lee McGregor can beat anybody in the world at featherweight and Nathaniel Collins is in my way tomorrow night.
"Beating him will see me take a huge step towards that so I'm fully focused on doing the job. Not being disrespectful - it's just self-belief - but I feel I'm a better boxer and I can outfight him as well.
"It makes for a great fight - our records, achievements, style - everyone has been buzzing for it ever since it was announced. It's going to be exciting but I'm going to take him into deep waters and come out on top. This is for the WBC silver so the winner of this is only going to go on and push for a world title fight so that's all the motivation we both need."