Taylor’s maiden pro title success ‘sweeter than winning gold’

JOSH Taylor said landing the Commonwealth superlightweight title surpassed the sensation of winning gold at Glasgow 2014.

The great and good of British boxing, including legendary Edinburgh fighter Ken Buchanan, Taylor’s promoter Barry McGuigan and his Cyclone Promotions stablemates Carl Frampton and George Groves, were in attendance at the Meadowbank Arena on Friday night to watch the self-style Pride of Prestonpans land his maiden professional belt and they weren’t disappointed.

His opponent, the 33-year-old Dave Ryan, had only been stopped once in his lengthy professional career, and even that was with an illegal punch to the kidney, but he had no answer to the Scot’s quick hands, combinations and movement.

This was only Taylor’s seventh pro fight but it was over before the end of the fifth round, by which time Ryan had been dropped twice. It was the kind of performance which will have raised a few eyebrows in a division which also includes Taylor’s fellow Scot Ricky Burns. “It’s better than winning Commonwealth Gold, it’s the best and sweetest victory of my career so far,” Taylor said. “I think I’m the first British fighter to win it so quickly in his career. That’s an achievement in itself, so I’m on cloud nine and I’m proud as punch. I’m going to go out for days with this belt round my waist. I’ll never take it off, I’ll sleep with it on.”

While McGuigan had compared him pre-fight to Scottish boxing royalty in the form of Buchanan, Taylor was delighted to prove he could handle the pressure.

Despite an ill-tempered build-up to the fight, mainly due to the provocations of Ryan’s promoter Clifton Mitchell, it was all sweetness and light afterwards. “Well I can safely say all the talk about @JoshTaylorBoxer becoming the next superstar is true,” a magnanimous Ryan tweeted. “Kid can fight and soon to be world champ.”

An overjoyed Taylor added: “I knew from the day I signed on the dotted line with Barry that I could go to the top. I know I’m at that level already although with it being so early in my career there was big pressure – like Barry saying I’m going to be the best thing since Ken Buchanan. I just take that with a pinch of salt.” There is no sign of Taylor resting on his laurels. With trainer Shane McGuigan building him up for the big time, the Edinburgh man could be in action again as early as mid November. “I’ll possibly be out at Wembley Arena on the George Groves undercard,” said Taylor, referring to Groves’ WBA International Super Middleweight bout against Eduard Gutknecht. “I’ll see how I feel after a week of rest and then I’ll get back into the gym. It’s pretty soon, so I’ll see how my team feel and see what they think is best. But I’ll be ready to go whatever.” Stewart Fisher