Josh Taylor has said he is ‘not scared to fight anybody’ after a decision to remain at 140lbs that will allow a rematch with Jack Catterall.
The formerly undisputed light welterweight champion scored a controversial points win over his English mandatory challenger in Edinburgh, with many - including Catterall - believing he had done enough to earn victory.
While the Scot had complained about the difficult of making the weight and had planned to move up an extra seven pounds in pursuit of bigger fights, he has now decided to stay in his current division.
“I want to shut everyone up,” explained Taylor to The National. “The only reason I’m staying at the weight is I want to fight Catterall again.
“I don’t think it was the wrong decision [in February] but I want to shut everyone up. I want to prove that was an off night for me and that I’m one of the best fighters on the planet.
“Because of all the stick and abuse I’ve been getting, and the way Jack’s been too, mouthing off and moaning, I just want to shut his mouth. The single reason I’m staying at the weight is to shut him and everyone else up.”
Taylor will first defend his belts against mandatory challenger from the WBC, Jose Zepeda, but is expected to be back in action against Catterall before the end of the year.
“It’s frustrating because anyone who knows me knows I’d fight with my shadow in an empty house. I’m not scared to fight anybody,” he continued. “But boxing fans are so fickle, they change like the weather. Often, they don’t understand the business and then it starts getting personal. And if they didn’t have that keyboard in front of them, there’s no way they’d say it.
“Everything I’ve done, being the first guy from the UK to become undisputed world champion, in only 18 fights – has that been forgotten?
“My run up to the Catterall fight had been defeating undefeated champion after undefeated champion, I beat them all. And I beat Jack too, on a really bad performance so it’s quite funny how quickly people forget.
“It would have been Jack before Zepeda if it could have been worked out, without the boxing politics and mandatories getting in the way. I’d rather be fighting Jack next but Zepeda is a big fight and people who are talking it down are people who don’t know the business. He’s a top-level fighter.”
Taylor remains set on moving up after his next two fights.
“Two or three years isn’t long,” he claimed. “After I fight Zepeda, then Catterall, I’ll move up to 147 and get some big fights.
“I’ve given a lot of my life to this sport, sacrificed a lot of my life. I feel like I’ve paid my dues and I’ve earned the right to be in really big fights now, I think I deserve to be in life-changing, lucrative fights. And I’ve got the talent too; I believe I can beat these guys.”