The titles are new. The contract is new. The trainer is new. It’s a brand new life for Josh Taylor, but it’ll have to wait a while. Coronavirus has put the world on hold, including the one that Taylor hopes to unify.
Taylor’s first title defense has fallen into a familiar category. His junior welterweight bout against challenger Apinun Khonsong, scheduled for May 2 in Glasgow, Scotland, has been postponed. But don’t make any plans. There’s no new date and there’s no idea when there might be one. Taylor must feel like he has a winning ticket, yet the lottery offices are closed and nobody knows when they’ll re-open.
“That’s the way it goes,’’ Taylor told his hometown newspaper, the Evening News in Edinburgh. “It’s completely out of my control, so it’s something you’ve just got to accept. Everything happens for a reason. So it might work out for the better when I fight him at a later date.’’
Taylor has been training in Las Vegas for his first fight since he added a second 140-pound belt with a decision over Regis Prograis on Oct. 26 in London. He signed with Top Rank after the dramatic victory. He left promoter Barry McGuigan and trainer Shane McGuigan in a controversial move. Then he hired Ben Davison, Tyson Fury’s former trainer.
It looked as if all the moves had been made. The table was set for an eventual bout against Jose Ramirez for all the pieces to the world’s 140-pound title. But the eventual end of coronavirus is nowhere in sight.
“We’ve never experienced this kind of situation before, so we’ve just got to sit tight and follow the guidelines,’’ Taylor said. “I’d been sitting watching all the boxing shows scheduled for the next month or two being postponed. So it wasn’t too much of a surprise when the call finally came through to tell me it was off.’’
Taylor, who got the news Tuesday, is hoping for a new date in July. Then again, so are a lot of other fighters.
“I’ve spent a lot of money on this training camp coming out to Vegas,’’ Taylor said. “… So it’s really frustrating. I’ve been in camp for quite a few weeks now, and although there is no alternative date yet, I would hope the fight could maybe be rescheduled for July or something like that.
“I’ll keep training in the gym and hopefully it’s not too long before I’m back in the ring.”
Only the waiting will get old.