Josh Taylor backed to continue rise by mauling Moraiti

Josh Taylor has won his first four fights as a professional. Pic: Steven Scott Taylor

It was announced today that the pair will meet at Cardiff’s Ice Arena on Saturday, May 14.

Promoter McGuigan, a former WBA featherweight champion, was hugely impressed with the way the Prestonpans fighter knocked out another Frenchman, Lyes Chaibi, in the second round of their fight on the undercard of Carl Frampton’s world-title showdown with Scott Quigg at a packed-out Manchester Arena in February.

That was Taylor’s fourth consecutive victory since he teamed up with McGuigan and the Cyclone Promotions chief reckons the Lothians fighter is equipped to continue surging up through the ranks.

McGuigan said: “He will be the next Scottish sensation, I’m telling you.

“Even with Frampton and all the other top guys that were on that bill in Manchester, the standout that night was Josh Taylor. He’s a top-flight fighter. He’s mixing with Frampton, George Groves and David Haye in training and those guys can’t take their eyes off Josh when he’s sparring.

“In Josh’s mind, he’s every bit as good as these guys. That’s the way he thinks. He’s still learning, improving and developing but he is going to make his way through all these guys that he is coming up against at the moment, he’s that special. Nobody has got past the second round with him and his last opponent [Chaibi] had previously boxed 12 rounds in a WBC International title and then Josh went and knocked him out.”

McGuigan hopes to bring Cyclone Promotions back to the Capital later this year. Their last show was in October when Taylor stopped Hungarian Adam Mate inside 90 seconds of the opening bell.

“We’ll be back in Edinburgh very soon and that will hopefully be with the TV cameras,” he said. “We’re certainly looking to be back at some point this year, make no mistake about it. We want everyone to get behind Josh as much as possible and give him that exposure because he is that good.”