Scotland's Josh Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) is two fights away from light-welterweight immortality — and if he can retain his WBA, IBF and The Ring titles this weekend against Apinun Khongsong (16-0, 13 KOs), he doesn't care where or when he gets WBC and WBO titlist Jose Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) in a unification showdown, as long as it happens.
Taylor vs. Khongsong takes place on Saturday at the BT Sport studios in London, behind closed doors. The boxer who holds onto their unbeaten professional record at the end of that main event is expected to move on to a winner-takes-all scenario against California's Ramirez.
And as much as Taylor, 29, would love to bring Ramirez over to a British venue, perhaps in London or Glasgow, he just wants to make sure it happens if he remains champion come next week.
“I’m really not sure where it would be,” Taylor told BoxingScene.com.
“And to be honest, I’m not bothered. I’ll fight anywhere."
Taylor went on to explain that the light-welter unification deserves to have a crowd in attendance, though with the UK Government recently confirming that crowds will not return to live sports as quickly as they'd hoped, it's hard to tell at this stage whether they'd be able to get many fans in, if any, any time soon.
He continued: "With a fight of this magnitude, I would want it to be when the crowds are there. I wouldn’t want it to be half capacity and stuff like that.
"I think it’s one of the biggest fights in boxing at this moment in time, so I would want this fight to have a full-capacity crowd. Whether it’s in Scotland or America, I’m not fussed. But, for sure, I would want that fight in front of a big crowd, a hundred percent.”
Taylor was a proven draw at both London's O2 Arena and Glasgow's SSE Arena prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, while Ramirez's promoter Bob Arum has been quoted as agreeing that the two absolutely should be holding off on a unification fight until crowds are allowed back in.
“I would love it to be in front of the big crowd,” Taylor said.
“It’s what every fighter dreams of: fighting these big unification fights, becoming undisputed champion in front of thousands of people and millions of people on TV. You know, that’s what every fighter dreams of.
"It would be a wee bit of a kick in the teeth to have a fight like that, and not have any fans there.
"So, of course, I would love for the fans to be there. That’s the dream come true, isn’t it? That is the dream.”