Newly crowned undisputed 140-pound king Josh Taylor has plenty of big-fight options right now yet it seems the fight at the top of the Scottish hero’s wish-list is a showdown with Terence Crawford.
Taylor says he would love to fight Crawford, the reigning WBO welterweight champion, in Scotland. Such a possibility might seem unlikely, but then again, maybe not.
Crawford has in fact fought in Scotland before, back in March of 2014, when he defeated Ricky Burns to take the WBO lightweight title, this “Bud’s” first world title.
As such, Taylor has added incentive to fight Crawford, in the form of revenge. Taylor, 18-0(13) told The Sun how he would “love to get revenge for his win over Ricky.”
Crawford, as Taylor pointed out, has no next fight signed up at present, so who knows, maybe Crawford will have interest in a second trip to Scotland.
“Crawford would be an amazing fight. He was the last guy to become undisputed champion at 140 and he seems to be struggling for a dance partner at the minute,” Taylor said. “I would happily take that fight and it’s one I would be confident of winning. I would take it in a heartbeat. Of course, I would love to get revenge for his win over Ricky. I’d love to fight him and I really think I have got the potential and the makings to beat him. I have got every tool in the box to beat him.”
Needless to say, a Crawford-Taylor fight in Scotland would be a huge occasion for UK boxing. It might, though, take quite the hefty payday to successfully lure Crawford back to Scotland. But as Taylor says, Crawford, last seen making short work of Kell Brook back in November, has no next fight lined up (at least he doesn’t have a fight we know anything about) – so why not fight Taylor?
Crawford, 37-0(28) is a superbly gifted boxer as we all know, but he has a pretty thin resume. In fact, it could be argued how a fight with Taylor would be Crawford’s biggest and most meaningful bout. Who wins if the two do get it on? Taylor-Crawford would very likely be a classic fight, a delight for the purists.
How realistic is this match-up and what are the chances of it being made?