By Allan Fox: Josh Taylor is upset at Sky Sports and the other UK media outlets for them choosing to televise the June 6th exhibition match between an aging Floyd Mayweather Jr and YouTuber Logan Paul rather than show his fight last Saturday against Jose Ramirez.
Josh feels deeply disappointed that none of the big UK media outlets chose to pick up his fight with Ramirez to show. Taylor told Talksport that Sky prefers to show “50-year-old Floyd Mayweather” fight a “Youtube guy” than showing one of their homegrown UK fighters.
Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) defeated Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to make history by becoming an undisputed 140-lb champion at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
It’s unclear why Sky and BT Sport opted not to show Taylor’s fight with Ramirez in the UK. Perhaps Taylor is still an unknown at this point of his six-year professional career, as he’s only had a small handful of fights against notable opposition.
Josh Taylor lacking in experience
Taylor does have several excellent wins on his record, but most of his victories have come against largely obscure domestic level opposition. Despite being 30-years-old, Taylor has fought just 18 times.
Taylor’s best career wins:
- Jose Ramirez
- Ivan Baranchyk
- Regis Prograis
- Viktor Postol
Those are the only quality wins on Taylor’s resume, and that’s clearly not enough for him to be a big star in the UK. You can argue that Taylor needs at least 10 to 15 more fights against quality opposition before becoming a star in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
When you compare Taylor’s 18 fights to that of 30-year-old Canelo Alvarez’s 59 professional fights in his 16-year career, it tells you that Josh hasn’t been active enough to make a big name for himself.
You can argue that if Taylor had 59 fights under his belt like Canelo, UK media outlets like Sky and BT Sport would have picked up his fight with Ramirez.
“I’m not going to lie, I was a little bit surprised, and kind of felt let down,” said Josh Taylor to Talksport Boxing about Sky choosing not to show his fight with Jose Ramirez.
“50-year-old Floyd Mayweather, who just looks like an old man and some YouTube guy, Sky are picking up that and talking about that.
Someone from your homegrown is daring to be great, and no-one gave a toss about it,” said Taylor.
For the record, the former five-division world champion Mayweather is 44-years-old, not 50, as Taylor says.
More importantly, Mayweather has 50 fights on his pro resume, and he’s been fighting the best fighters throughout his career. In contrast, Taylor only has a small handful of wins over relevant opposition during his six-year career.
Taylor needs to focus on quality opposition
“I kinda felt like in the build-up and the lack of TV picking it up,” said Taylor.
“It kind of cheesed me off a little bit, and I was like, ‘Well, why am I not getting the recognition, but they’re talking about bloody Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather?” said Taylor.
If Taylor wants the UK media outlets to start showing his fights, he needs to be assertive with his promoters by telling them that he’s not interested in facing domestic-level fighter Jake Catterall next.
Taylor needs to keep the momentum going with his career after his big win over Ramirez by taking on Teofimo Lopez or other fighters that fans care about.
If Taylor lets his promoters steer him towards lesser opposition like Catterall, he’ll age out before he ever makes a big name for himself. Taylor is already 30 and not young for a guy that only has 18 fights on his resume.
Josh Taylor needs wins over these fighters:
- Teofimo Lopez
- Terence Crawford
- Errol Spence Jr
- Jaron Ennis
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- Shawn Porter
- Regis Prograis – a rematch
- Gervonta Davis
- Keith Thurman
- Danny Garcia
- Ryan Garcia
- Devin Haney