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Josh Taylor could barely walk up and down a flight of stairs in October, let alone complete the rigorous roadwork required to get into championship shape.
The undefeated, undisputed 140-pound champion had little choice, Taylor recalled, but to postpone his fight against England’s Jack Catterall. Taylor was supposed to encounter Catterall, the mandatory challenger for his WBO junior welterweight title, on December 18 at OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.
Their fight was postponed two-plus months, until Saturday night, because bursitis and small tissue tears in Taylor’s right knee forced the Scottish southpaw to rest. Had he tried to trudge through the pain, Taylor realizes he would’ve jeopardized everything he has worked so hard to achieve.
“I couldn’t run,” Taylor told BoxingScene.com. “I couldn’t really walk up and down stairs, to be honest, because it was so inflamed, aggressively swollen and stuff, so it was really quite painful. I could still do my boxing training, but I couldn’t do the rest of it to get in peak condition, basically.
“You know, I couldn’t do my [strength and conditioning] stuff, my running, my conditioning – running circuits and things like that. So, you know, obviously I wanna be in the best shape I possibly can. I’ve worked so hard to acquire the belts that I’ve got. I didn’t wanna risk losing them because I failed to prepare to my full ability and my full potential because of an injury.”
Taylor, 31, will defend his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts for the first time since he became just the fifth fighter to fully unify in any division during boxing’s four-belt era. The Prestonpans, Scotland, native added the WBC and WBO championships to his IBF and WBA crowns May 22, when he dropped Jose Ramirez twice, once apiece in the sixth and seventh rounds, and defeated Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) by majority decision in their 12-rounder at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
A confident Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) doesn’t expect his right knee to trouble him at all while he boxes Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs), a 28-year-old southpaw who will end a layoff that has lasted almost 15 months.
“Camp’s been brilliant for me,” Taylor said. “You know, it’s been really smooth – a nice, long, slow camp. So, it’s been good. I’m in great condition. It was just getting the knee injury sort of squashed, you know, and back to full fitness. I’ve been flying in the gym, you know, so it’s been great. … I got good treatment on it and saw good doctors, and I saw a specialist. Rest and treatment obviously was the remedy, so yeah, I got it sorted and everything’s all good now.”
Caesars Sportsbook lists Taylor as a 14-1 favorite to conquer Catterall in advance of a main event Sky Sports will air in the United Kingdom and Ireland (7 p.m. GMT) and ESPN+ will stream in the United States (2 p.m. ET; 11 a.m. PT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.