“It has been a difficult few weeks,” were the opening words of Josh Taylor. It was a reflective ex-fighter I found on Zoom. I’m not sure if the relentless round of interviews, answering the same tiresome and predictable questions, was a welcome bit of therapy or some kind of beyond-painful repetitiveness for Taylor.
A shock retirement a few weeks prior to our interview had cut short his career. “It’s been quite shit,” Taylor told Boxing News. “I knew I was coming to the end of my career, but to have it ripped away like that is quite tough to deal with. I went in for a routine check with my eye, and they found a little tear in my retinal tissue.
“When I went in to have it done, they went in to laser it up, and they found six tears. So I was on the operating table a little bit longer than we expected. The doctor said I was very lucky I came in when I did because it might have only taken one more big blow to my eye, and I could have been blinded. I can say I am lucky to still have my vision because I went in when I did. I am extremely fortunate in that sense.”
Taylor’s career was seemingly headed only in one direction after three straight defeats. The loss to Ekow Essuman in May seemed to indicate his career had run its natural course. But any lingering thoughts of one last run were taken out of his hands.
“It was a tough decision to retire, but it was half-made for me,” Taylor said. “I have had it done. It’s on the mend, and it’s fine now. But it would have been a big risk to fight on, and I don’t want to risk going through it all again, and next time, potentially losing my sight in that eye.
“It would have been a big gamble to take. If I were in a position where I hadn’t yet won a world title, I would have continued and pushed on. Fortunately, I have been in a good position these last few years, where I have achieved more than I thought I would achieve. So, I had to count my blessings and cash in my chips.”
“I still think I had more to give,” Taylor added. “There is no doubt in my mind that I won the second fight with Jack Catterall. They gave him that on a sympathy vote. It was close, but I thought I just nicked it to be fair. As soon as I heard the first scorecard, I knew what they were doing. In the Teofimo Lopez fight, I started off alright, but I went into that fight half-fit.
“I had that bad injury with my plantar fasciitis tendon. I was given an ultimatum: either fight within six months or I would have to vacate my belt. I had vacated all my other titles, so I didn’t want to give this one up without a fight.
“I was kind of forced into that one, and a date was forced upon me. I wasn’t able to go into that fight with Lopez 100 per cent fit. I could only do three weeks of running after the injury had healed up. I actually had a great camp, considering the limitations.
“I was in great shape. But when we got to New York, it was so noisy, and I didn’t really sleep for two weeks. After the first Catterall fight and all the stick I got, I put myself under a lot of pressure to perform. I prepared to the best of my ability with what I had. I had great sparring partners in, and I knocked a few of them out.
“But it just didn’t go my way on the night, unfortunately. But I was proud of myself, considering all those limitations that I had. But after the 11th round, my legs were absolutely gone. I tried my best; it wasn’t my best performance. In my last three or four fights, I have just been riddled with injuries.”
Josh Taylor was perhaps the biggest ‘boxing’ victim during those tough, heavily restrictive times of COVID and the endless lockdowns. A fighter at the height of his powers.
“100 per cent, I believe that,” Taylor said in agreement. “I was on a great roll. After the Regis Prograis fight, I was moving onto bigger things, but then Covid came. All of a sudden, we were doing nothing for a year. I was just getting going, and it all got shut down. We were still training like mad, but we were only fighting once a year. I was in brilliant condition, and I was training in the hope I was going to get a fight.
“I got the one fight in lockdown, and obviously, my second fight was the Ramirez fight. There were obviously rules, and only a limited number of people were allowed to get into the arena. I had to go home and quarantine, so I couldn’t have my coming home moment. It robbed me of my momentum.
“I don’t really have any regrets, but the biggest frustration is all of the COVID stuff. It just killed all my momentum, and it was hard to get going again.”
I would say Taylor is content with his career, if not entirely satisfied. He wanted more, but what he got was enough. In many ways, the way it all ended was somewhat premature. The injury to his eye was the final nail. But it had been coming. Maybe in some ways, it was a blessing.
Despite Taylor saying he had more to give, many will say he had been a fighter in decline for quite some time, probably as far back as 2022, and that highly controversial first fight with Jack Catterall. A body was telling him enough was enough.
But the former undisputed world super-lightweight champion can look back with immense pride on a truly glorious career.
“It was a shit end to my career, but I am proud of what I achieved. I achieved more than I set out to achieve. Obviously, I wanted to be a world champion, and I would have been very disappointed if I were talking to you now and I hadn’t become a world champion.
“I would have been very bitter if I hadn’t become a world champion, and I fulfilled it very early on in my career. I went on to become an undisputed world champion. I have had a great career. It’s just that the accumulation of injuries has added up, and we have reached this point.”
Josh Taylor seems to be in a good place. He was reflective but incredibly measured with his words, and while he might not yet have found peace, he will. With a little time, Taylor will be just fine. “The future is bright,” Taylor says. “A few opportunities have already come knocking on my door.”
You could easily envisage Taylor taking on that infamous SAS course for Channel 4 or doing a bit of ice skating on a rival reality show. But Taylor shouldn’t be lost to boxing. Some kind of punditry career should be in his future. Taylor does appear to have options. Not every fighter on the safe side of the ropes can say that.
Despite that stellar career, both as an amateur and that quite remarkable professional run when he was at the peak of his powers, Josh Taylor can still fall into that underrated and underappreciated category.
The decline, at least in some ways, overshadows the prime. It shouldn’t, but sadly, it can. Those defeats at the end of his career to Lopez, Catterall, and Essuman only tell so much.
But that undisputed label and his overall resume will stand the test of time. The Hall of Fame will undoubtedly come calling. A fitting tribute to one of the greatest British fighters of the modern era.
