Josh Taylor’s trainer Ben Davison has called on his fighter to be cool headed and calm during the first defence of his undisputed super-lightweight titles on Saturday night.
Taylor faces WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall at the SSE Hydro, Glasgow which will see the Scot fight in front of home fans for the first time since May 2019 when Taylor won the IBF title against Ivan Baranchyk.
“It’s important he sticks to a gameplan,” Davison told Boxing Social’s Ayman Khan after yesterday’s public workouts.
“There’s an expectation for Josh in this fight. How people expect that expectation to come to fruition is different to how we perceive that to come to fruition. It’s important that he’s disciplined. It’s the first time fighting in front of his fans for quite some time after going away and achieving what he’s achieved and becoming undisputed champion of the world.
“It’s important that he doesn’t get carried away and he’s disciplined doing certain things that he needs to do and creates certain scenarios that favour us. And if the fight goes deeper then use the crowd as the 12th man.”
In Taylor and Catterall’s appearances on Sky Sports build-up show The Gloves Are Off the Englishman was adamant that the champion’s temperament could be his downfall. While Taylor dismissed the very idea Davison has reminded him of not to get carried away during the fight.
“The reality is Jack can punch. He’s probably a bit of a better puncher than his record may suggest. We’re aware of that. I’ve drilled that into Josh. If Josh does get carried away with his temperament, he’s rolling the dice. You have to be realistic with your fighter with that scenario. We’ve let him know that [and] he’s aware of that. We’ve worked on how to make sure to not create that scenario they’re looking for.”
Click here to watch the rest of Boxing Social’s interview with Josh Taylor in full.