By Marcus Richardson: Unbeaten light welterweight contender Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor (11-0 10 KOs) will be fighting a still to be determined opponent on March 3 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.
There are no names that are currently being mentioned for the 27-year-old Taylor to fight. With Taylor fighting in the main event, he’s going to need to fight a big name for him to sellout the venue. Taylor recently beat former IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez by a 9th round knockout in his last fight on November 11th. Taylor was hit a lot by Vazquez in that fight. Ultimately, Taylor’s size and power advantage proved to be too much for the former lightweight champion. It might have been a different story if Vazquez had punching power and if he were a little younger. Vazquez is an old 31, with a lot of ring mileage on him from 12 years as a pro.
Taylor is ranked #5 WBC, #10 IBF and #15 WBO at light welterweight. Going after the WBC 140 lb. title might not be the smartest move for Taylor. Jose Carlos Ramirez (21-0, 16 KOs) is expected to capture the vacant WBC light welterweight title in his fight against Amir Imam on March 17. Ramirez is a 2012 U.S Olympian. He might have too much fire power for Taylor. It would be smarter for Taylor to go after the WBA or the WBO belt.
Taylor would have an excellent chance of beating the Rances Barthelemy vs. Kiryl Relikh 2 winner or the Terry Flanagan vs. Maurice Hooker winner to win a world title at 140.
The fight that Taylor needs at this juncture is a match against 34-year-old former 3 division world champion Ricky ‘Rickster’ Burns (41-7-1, 14 KOs). Burns is from Scotland as well, and a fight between him and Taylor would surely sellout the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. Burns’ career is not looking too good right now, however.
Burns has lost his last 2 fights to Anthony Crolla and Julius Indongo, and he’s not looking too good right now. Burns moved back down to lightweight for the Crolla fight, and some boxing fans felt that he deserved the win in that fight. Burns doesn’t match-up well against the current lightweight champions Robert Easter Jr., Jorge Linares and Mikey Garcia. A fight against the 5’10” Taylor might prove to be too hard of a test for Burns at this point in his career. Burns is not a strong light welterweight. Burns has had 6 fights at light welterweight, but he’s not looked as impressive in this weight class as he’s looked at the lower weights at super featherweight and lightweight.
These are the type of fighters Josh Taylor needs to sell tickets for his March 3 fight:
– Ricky Burns
– Adrien Broner
– Julius Indongo
– Amir Khan
– Eduard Troyanovsky
– Anthony Yigit
– Omar Figueroa
– Felix Diaz
2012 Olympian Taylor looked very good in beating Ohara Davies by a 7th round knockout last year on July 8th at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow. That was by far the best win over Taylor’s 3-year pro career.