Former undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs) heads into his rematch with Jack Catterall (28-1, 13 KOs) on Saturday at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England, determined to show he is not past his best.
Speaking at Thursday’s press conference at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, Taylor admitted he has been frustrated by comments suggesting that he has peaked after suffering the first defeat of his career, to Teofimo Lopez last June.
A lackluster performance saw Scotland’s Taylor ultimately outboxed by Lopez at the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York.
Victory saw Lopez claim the WBO 140-pound belt, the last remaining title in Taylor’s possession.
In the lead-up to his mandatory defense against Lopez, Taylor suffered a foot injury, which limited his sparring and training.
The long-awaited rematch between Taylor and rival Catterall has seen Taylor face the often-dreaded question every fighter fears: “Is he past it?”
Amir Khan, a friend of Taylor’s, recently suggested that he believes the former undisputed champion has lost his “spark.”
However, Taylor says he will prove that a single defeat does not define a fighter.
“Look at the history of boxing,” Taylor said. “All the great fighters of the past have taken defeats and come back and won world titles again. Just because you take one defeat doesn’t mean you’re a finished fighter. I think that’s where boxing has taken a turn for the worse, because when a fighter takes a loss, everyone goes, ‘Ah, he’s finished,’ and stuff like that.”
The Scotsman drew the comparison between boxing and mixed martial arts, in which a number of elite fighters carry multiple losses but remain in the upper echelons of their chosen profession.
Ultimately, despite his complaints of being written off, Taylor remains confident of a positive result against Catterall, which will catapult him back into world title contention.
“In the UFC, there are fighters with 20 fights and 10 losses, and they are still at the top of the game,” Taylor said. “Just because you take a loss doesn’t mean you’re a bad fighter. I still feel like I’m at the top of the game, and on Saturday I’ll take care of business and I’ll be back in the picture to recapture my titles.”
Read the full article here
