IF there was any doubt about the potential Josh Taylor has to become a superstar in the world of boxing, it was dispelled at a packed Royal Highland Centre on Saturday night. Taylor, in his first defence of his WBC Silver Super Lightweight title, was up against a boxer of considerable reputation in Miguel Vazquez and the general consensus ahead of the bout was that it would be a tight affair.
The Mexican had held the IBF World Lightweight title for four years and in 44 professional fights prior to taking on the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, the 30 year-old had never been stopped.
Taylor changed all that. While there was nothing to split the fighters in the opening few rounds, Taylor grew in confidence and began finding his range with impressive effectiveness. A ferocious combination ending with a right hand shot to the body left Vazquez on the canvas. He did not recover.
The Scot knew he had been in a battle – he was bloodied and bruised having suffered a cut to the head following a clash of heads in round two and a hand injury mid-way through the contest but despite the battle scars, Taylor could not hide his delight at extending his unbeaten record to 11-0, and doing it in such style.
“I’m over the moon with that, it was a good performance,” he said. “He was really tough and it was definitely that hardest test of my career so far.
“People were saying that he’s not a puncher but he’s definitely more heavy-handed than people give him credit for. He was very awkward and hard to hit clean.”
Taylor struggled to make any significant headway in the early rounds, with Vazquez using all his experience to defend himself effectively ensuring that the 26 year-old was not doing any significant damage.
Taylor has not been up against anyone in the pro game so far who has negated his skills quite so proficiently and he admits that he got a touch impatient and only when he relaxed did he begin to make significant headway.
“I was getting a little bit frustrated with myself at times but once I relaxed and stopping try so hard then I started getting the shots off,” he said. “I was hitting him clean with some decent shots but he was recovering well really quickly. I knew I had to start going downstairs to slow him down a bit and that’s what I started doing.
“I always knew I could take him out but I think I was trying a bit too hard early on but once I started relaxing, I started flowing and starting hitting him with better shots. That’s been the best fight I’ve had so far and I’ve learned a lot.”
There has been much talk of a world title fight for Taylor but his first plan of attack was to disappear into the Edinburgh night for a couple of pints and a pizza. He has his sights on taking a European title before any world title fights and he is certain that he wants to return to his home city. “That was brilliant, the crowds are getting bigger and bigger and the atmosphere was brilliant, it lifts you that extra 10 percent,” he said.
“I’m enjoying every minute of the ride and I hope I can keep bringing big nights back to Edinburgh. I’m confident in my own ability that I’m going to win a world title.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here