Already without his family and friends able to travel with him to the United States because of COVID-19 and extremely tight travel restrictions and inability to secure visas, Taylor and his team first ended up in Mexico City and stuck in isolation. Once they left and made it to Las Vegas, a couple of things irked Taylor, but he didn't divulge what happened. But that fuel of being without his loved ones and his fans drove him to drop Ramirez twice and go on to win a decision to become the undisputed junior welterweight champion.
"(There were) travel restrictions. People weren't allowed to come into the USA, so my family couldn't get a visa to come over. None of that," Taylor told DAZN News. "None of my traveling fans was able to come over. None of the UK fans, family, or friends could come over with me. It was just myself and my team.
"It was a different atmosphere and a different atmosphere in the USA. I had them all against me. I had the odds stacked against me. I ended up having to do an isolation thing and go to Mexico City, and there were a couple of other things that I wasn't happy around. It felt like it was us against the world. I wasn’t able to bring my family with me. I wasn’t able to bring my fans with me. It was just me against the world, so I had the fire in the back of my teeth to come away with a win even more."
When boxers capture all four belts, typically, the belts get vacated. Terence Crawford did it. Claressa Shields did it. What would Taylor do? It made sense for him to make the move everyone expected him to make win, lose or draw against Ramirez, which was go up to welterweight and take on the likes of Crawford, Errol Spence Jr., Yordenis Ugas, Vergil Ortiz Jr., and Keith Thurman. To the shock of many, Taylor chose to keep all four titles and defend them on Saturday versus WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall from the OVO Hydro in Taylor's home country of Scotland.
What led Taylor to keep all four titles, pay the sanctioning fees, and remain at a weight class where no viable challengers remain since he's cleaned out the division?
"I can stay at 140 pounds," Taylor defiantly said. "(Catterall) is my mandatory. So if I’m staying at the weight, I would have no way of getting out of it anyway. I couldn't have not taken the fight because I would have been stripped of the (WBO) belt if I didn't take my mandatory challenge. It's a mandatory challenger at the end of the day.
"There’s still big fights. But we also made a deal. He was in the position to fight Jose Ramirez before me as a mandatory. We both came to an agreement that he’ll step aside, and he’ll let me fight for all the bills. Then on the back of that, I would keep my word and fight him after. And that's what I have done and kept my word."
Taylor is an overwhelming favorite to dispatch Catterall and retain his titles. Bet MGM has Taylor installed as a -1200 favorite. It would be easy for "The Tartan Tornado" to overlook Catterall before he moves on to more significant fights in the future. But the 31-year-old doesn't see it that way and uses two fights as an example of why you need to take every opponent you step across the ring with seriously.
"Very easy because if it doesn't go my way, I don't get these fights," Taylor said. "You see what happens. Look at what happened with Teofimo Lopez (against George Kambosos). Look what happened with Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz. Look at what happened to a few other fighters that have overlooked and look at what's happened. (They didn’t look at) what's in front of them, and then it goes pear-shaped and goes wrong. It goes the wrong way. I'm not making the mistake these guys are looking past. The one thing I've always learned in boxing (is) you never ever underestimate or look past your opponent because that's when it goes t—s up."
If Taylor gets past Catterall, the fight many want to see is the Scot moving up to welterweight and challenging Crawford for the WBO belt. When asked about Crawford, you could hear the angst in Taylor's voice. He's tired of being asked about Crawford, but it is a relevant question as it's a fight people want to see.
Taylor couldn't care less. Once Saturday is done, and he accomplishes the task at hand, then he'll be glad to chat about Crawford or anybody else.
"What's next? I don't want to talk about what's next," Taylor bluntly said. "What's next is Saturday night. That's all that matters is Saturday night and getting that result, and then we can talk what's next once I get the result."