_1621551146.jpg)
WBO junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor is promising to turn his back on the haters, and the doubters, in the aftermath of a planned rematch with Jack Catterall.
Earlier this year, Taylor was the undisputed champion at the weight and retained the WBO, IBF, WBA, WBC titles with a controversial twelve round split decision over Catterall.
Taylor, who went down in the fight, had trouble with Catterall’s tricky boxing style.
The rematch is poised to take place on Saturday, February 4 at the Hydro, in Glasgow.
To make the rematch a reality, Taylor was forced to vacate the IBF, WBC and WBA titles – as mandatory orders began to pile up.
“When I win this fight and all the so-called top boxing pundits, the outlets, want to be your friend again, they can all get to France as far as I’m concerned,” Taylor told the Edinburgh Evening News.
“They showed who they wanted to win the fight with all their bias. After the fight it was all ‘Jack this and Jack that’ but I’m still the champion and I’ve heard nothing from anyone, and the stuff they have written about me, they’ve really shown their true colors. It wasn’t that when I became the first Briton in the modern era to become undisputed world champion, they didn’t want to know.
“It’s a grudge match. It’s become personal with the things that have been said since the fight like Jack moaning about corruption and all this sh!t. There’s a bit of needle there so I’m going to get in the ring and knock him out this time.”
To prepare for the rematch, Taylor parted ways with head trainer Ben Davison and hired Joe McNally, who works with Liam Smith among others.
“I just felt like I needed a change so there was no fall-out or anything like that with Ben,” Taylor explained. “We’re still good friends, but I just needed to do what’s best for my career. I learned a lot from Ben and am grateful for the time we had.”