By Neil McGlade

Copyright scotsman

A boxing journey that spanned near enough two decades, amateur and professional, Taylor left no stone unturned. The 34-year-old announced he was retiring in July due to medical concerns over his left eye after surgeons found six tears in his retinal tissue. Taylor wasn’t prepared to play Russian roulette with his eyesight. The sport’s top table will be a far worse place off without the former undisputed world champion’s presence, that’s for sure. He recognises it’s going to take some time to adjust to life after boxing. Understandably so. This guy wasn’t your average journeyman who travelled up and down the country, moving on from small hall show to small hall show. He didn’t just mix it with the best. He was the best. “The last few months have been full of ups and downs,” Taylor said in an exclusive interview with the Evening News. “I don’t like using the word depression, but I’ve had my moments when I’m on a real downer. Yeah, some bad days for sure. It sometimes feels I’ve just had it all ripped away.” When the Tartan Tornado cleaned up the super lightweight division in Las Vegas in in 2021, he brought all the marbles home with him to Prestonpans – the first Briton to do so in the four-belt era. A former Olympian, too, having competed at the London Games in 2012, his crowning moment arrived two years later when he secured Commonwealth gold in Glasgow in front of a partisan Hydro crowd. “I always knew I was going to become world champion, but to win Commonwealth gold with the amount of pressure I had on my shoulders was unbelievable,” Taylor explained. “I was the poster boy of Scottish boxing before I was even selected. I then realised I really needed to win this. I just went from strength to strength over those couple of weeks. “Then when I think back to my big moment in Las Vegas. Because of Covid, there was only 800 people there. Nobody on mainstream television picked it up, the biggest achievement in the sport in a long time and not one broadcaster put it on. It was tainted because I couldn’t even come home and celebrate. I didn’t even get nominated for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year either! Unreal really when you think of it. And I’m still the only person in Britain to achieve what I have.” Taylor’s expedition to stardom began with Barry McGuigan’s Cyclone Promotions in 2015. He won his first world title under the former featherweight world champion’s watch in May 2019, the Irishman’s son, Shane, coaching him to 15 pro bouts undefeated. He then won the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) at a packed-out O2 Arena in London five months later, defeating American Regis Prograis after a colossal 12 rounds. A switch to US-based promoter Top Rank saw him claim the biggest prize in the sport under their tutelage, not to mention topping the bill at Madison Square Garden, in New York, in June 2023, where he endured the first of three defeats as a pro boxer. “When I signed with Barry and Cyclone, I believed they were the best team for me as they only had a small stable so I knew I’d get their time and attention,” he said. “When I fought (Viktor) Postol, that was their last show in terms of promotions. And then when I went into the WBSS they tried to take near enough 50 per cent off me. So, as soon as that happened, I told them I was off. “But the O2 in London was amazing. It was a brilliant fight and a show I really loved being involved in. I really did enjoy New York, too. There was a good travelling support and even after the fight, we had booked out a bar on the Sunday and, as a thank you, I put some money in the till and we had a really good day. It was a good pick-me-up as it was my first loss so I can only imagine the party we would have had if I’d won! “Winning my first world title against Baranchyk was also special. But I knew I was going to win, I had no nerves before the fight at all. The one fight I was really nervous before was against Postol. He’d only just lost to Terence Crawford so I knew I was up against it as I hadn’t really fought at world level before that. It was sink or swim and probably the one win I’ve felt so proud of, to be fair. He really tested my chin, my legs went in the seventh round, so it was tough. The fights at Meadowbank were brilliant, too, the atmosphere was electric, so I’ve fought in some real special venues. “I should have been paid a lot more for what I managed to achieve when you break it all down. It’s a bit frustrating but you can’t really dwell on it. “When I went to Top Rank they paid me really well. They knew I could get a shot at the undisputed pretty much straight away. I still don’t think I got that recognition. But, in the other sense, my career panned out perfectly.” Anyone who follows Taylor closely on social media will have clocked he has been putting in the laps at Knockhill racing circuit over the summer. A passion for motorbikes since he was a young boy, the former boxer is now finding his regular adrenalin fix on two wheels. He said: “I’m going to do another couple of track days before the end of the year. I might even take my bike over to Spain and get some time on the track there. I don’t think I’ll race competitively as it’s so expensive. I just enjoy riding my bike and getting those juices flowing again. “When you come back to normal life, you can feel, at times, like it’s pointless. It’s such a comedown from having the career that I had. I need a hobby to focus on. I can’t take going to the gym just now. It’s too hard to be around. I’m not sure if I can train boxers full-time, but I do need to be involved in some capacity. “It really just depends on the opportunities that come my way. I don’t know if I’d open up my own gym because that is such a huge commitment. But I’ll definitely go down to Lochend and help out there. “I enjoy the punditry, too. I really like the buzz of the night so I’d like to keep doing that. I went to the show in Belfast last week and the love and welcome I received was unreal. The amount of people coming up to me was unbelievable. I don’t even get that at boxing shows here at home. It actually made me stop and think maybe I have left an impact in the sport. It was good to be back amongst some familiar faces too. “I suppose I’m just trying to enjoy things I haven’t been able to do in the past. I’ve been with my wife Danielle for 15 years and, until recently, we’ve never even really had the luxury of going out for a meal together, or going on holiday, or things like that, because I have always had to watch what I do or have been away for weeks on end in training camps. I think we’re going to get another dog in the next few weeks too. I like getting out and about so that will be good. “I actually got offered to do Strictly this year. I had the audition, did a bit of Ballroom dancing and the cha-cha-cha. It was so awkward. I left it a couple of days and then they told me they had someone from a sporting background. But, at the same time, I also got asked to go in the jungle, but I had to tell them I was having an audition for Strictly so I ended up missing out on the two of them!”