Josh Taylor is still mulling over his realistic future in the super-lightweight division following his defeat to Teofimo Lopez at MSG last month. Taylor would lose his WBO world title via unanimous decision to Lopez, whose future within the sport and champion status are currently up in the air.
Taylor was previously undisputed world champion following his win over Jose Ramirez in the summer of 2021 and was on the crest of a wave of success. However, Taylor flattered to deceive in his mandatory defence against domestic rival Jack Catterall, edging a controversial split decision in February 2022 to Catterall in defending his WBA, WBO, IBF & WBC world titles.
The following months saw Taylor vacate all but his WBO world title as the pair agreed terms to a rematch. However, injuries sustained by Taylor and the WBO ordering Taylor to defend his title against Teofimo Lopez curtailed the prospect of a rematch ever happening.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Taylor revealed that he will be looking to return to the ring before the end of the year and that he will be returning to Liverpool to return working alongside coach Joe McNally.
“I’ll be out before the end of the year again, hopefully October or November time. I’ll do what’s best for me. In the last two years after the Jose Ramirez fight, I’ve made deals to please other people. So, it’s time to get back to being selfish again and doing what’s best for me,” Taylor explained to The Daily Record.
“I’ll go down this week to Liverpool, get all my tests done, and go over what went well and what went wrong in the Lopez fight. There were a lot of factors in that camp, things that didn’t go my way. I went into the fight when I maybe shouldn’t have. I should have delayed it four or five weeks.”
Contrary to his previous statements, Taylor is now more than willing to pursue a rematch with Catterall and oblige his domestic rival Regis Prograis, with the pair contesting the final of the World Boxing Super Series in 2019.
“We’ll see what options are there and what fights I get offered, whether at 140 or 147,” Taylor said.
“The Catterall fight will be getting revisited again, hopefully sooner rather than later. I want it again, just to shut most people up. That will definitely happen again before I retire, that’s for sure. If I stay at 140, then my next fight isn’t going to be a championship fight, so it won’t be championship weight anyway.
“That will work in my favour. But I can still make the weight. I made the weight in New York perfectly, better than at any time in the last few years. So the weight wasn’t an excuse. We’ll see what happens going forward, whether it’s at 140 or 147 or switching between the two.
“Unless I get someone like Regis Prograis, who still wants his rematch as well. That could be another title fight at 140. I need to speak to promoters to see what fights are out there and what’s going to be offered to me. I’ve already had half a path carved out for the route we’re going to take when I move up to 147. So we’ll speak to the lads and the promoters and see what’s happening.”
