As he approaches the end of an arduous camp in Los Angeles, where he trains with Malik Scott, Ezra Taylor begins to feel a trickle of excitement.
Not only is the finish line finally in sight but, more importantly, the 32-year-old looks forward to finalising his preparations in Nottingham, where he takes a trip down memory lane and is reunited with loved ones.
“It’s gruelling, training over there in America, so I love coming home and seeing my family and friends. I’ll go back to my boxing club – Bilborough Boxing Club – and see all the kids who look up to me.
“Then I’ll go for a drive and see my old primary school, the first place I worked, and all these little landmarks that make me realise how far I’ve come.”
While everyone can relate to that feeling of returning home, perhaps after a long trip away, many will also have experienced the same first job as Taylor, who started boxing at a relatively late stage – aged 19 – but never once abandoned his dream.
“I worked on the checkouts in Tesco – used to pack people’s bags and be extra sweet to the old ladies. It was the making of me.
“I was boxing at the time, so would work at Tesco and have a fight later that night. Again, it’s good to see how far I’ve come. Sometimes I go into that Tesco just to walk around.”
Just over a decade removed from that formative time in his life, Taylor landed a major opportunity that could have accelerated his bid for a world title shot.
Only, instead of emerging victorious, ‘The Cannon’ suffered a rather humbling defeat to Willy Hutchinson and, as a result, was left to connect the dots as to why things didn’t quite go the way he had hoped.
“As crazy as it sounds, I’m happy that I lost. I’d started putting a lot of pressure on myself, thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this right.’ But I don’t think that’s the best way to look at things; it should all be fuelled by passion.
“That’s what I’ve been focusing on in this training camp; I’ve seen a different side to myself. These slight adjustments I’ve made with my team have worked, and that’s just an amazing feeling.
“I wanted to win my last fight so bad that, when I lost, I thought my whole world was ending. But now I see the beauty in it because, if I didn’t lose, I wouldn’t have learned the lesson I’ve learned and become the boxer I am now.”
Not only has Taylor made subtle adjustments to his training but, in terms of his life outside the ring, too, he appears to have benefited from speaking with a psychologist.
“Most of the conversations we have are about separating Ezra ‘The Cannon’ Taylor from Ezra Taylor.
“Boxing is my identity, and I’d started looking at myself as a robot because, as a boxer, you go in the ring and you’re not meant to have any emotions.
“You’re meant to be cold – a killer, essentially – and I couldn’t differentiate that side of me from my normal life.
“I have a son – I can’t be cold with him. I have family; I have a partner – I can’t be cold with them. I could just never relax, and that’s why I put so much pressure on myself.
“But you’ve got to find a balance because, if not, it’s going to eat you alive. So that loss [against Hutchinson] made me look at things from a different perspective. The key is to enjoy what I’m doing.”
While, looking back, he believes that loss to Hutchinson came at the right time, Taylor was far less optimistic in the immediate aftermath of their encounter in March.
“I cried like a little boy, just the same [as he did after his previous defeat, as an amateur] – it was a similar feeling. It had been such a long time since I’d lost that I started doubting myself – ‘Am I even a good boxer? Should I even be here?’
“It’s only natural to have those thoughts, but I’m just grateful to have had good people around me when I hit rock bottom.
“My team’s not changed at all. For me, there’s nothing better than winning with your team, losing with your team, and then coming back to win again.”
Hoping to do just that against Brad Rea, who he will face this Saturday in Manchester, Taylor expects to do so with an entirely different mindset to what he had earlier this year.
