He achieved almost everything he set out to do. He climbed his Everest. But now is the right time for Josh Taylor to step away from the ring, his legacy intact, writes Graeme Macpherson

It was typical of Josh Taylor’s stubborn and determined nature that only after a doctor’s warning that he could potentially lose his sight did he reluctantly agree to finally hang up his gloves.

Every boxer believes they have at least one more bout in them - even Muhammad Ali hung on for a few more years than he really should have - but there is little doubt that this is the correct moment for Taylor to call it a day rather than dragging it out in the forlorn hope of recapturing some of his former glories.

The last few years have undoubtedly been a struggle for the Prestonpans southpaw as his advancing years, poor decision-making and a lack of motivation have all contributed to a gradual but unedifying fall down the rankings. 

As Taylor himself noted in his valedictory message, the medics have ‘saved me from myself’ by bringing down the curtain on his career almost a decade to the day from when he first entered the professional ranks.

Retirement will hit hard like it does with most athletes but the 34-year-old can have no regrets having managed what precious few sportsmen and women do by achieving almost everything he set out to. 

In becoming the first and so far only British male to become undisputed world champion in the four-belt era, Taylor scaled the heights of his own personal Mount Everest.

When he defeated Jose Carlos Ramirez in Las Vegas in May 2021 - knocking down the undefeated American twice on his way to a unanimous points decision - Taylor joined his hero, Ken Buchanan, in becoming an undisputed champion. 

Taylor has always deferred to Buchanan whenever asked about the greatest Scottish boxer of all time but the pair, and three-weight world champion Ricky Burns, all deserve to be in that conversation.

Taylor’s achievement in sweeping the board also made him at that time just the third ever male undisputed champion of the modern era, following in the lofty footsteps of Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk, hallowed company indeed.

If there were regrets on the Scot’s part, they centred on the fact that more people didn’t witness the greatest moment of his boxing life. 

The Ramirez fight took place in the midst of Covid restrictions - Taylor is and was a fierce critic of the pandemic and a vaccine sceptic - meaning only a handful of spectators were inside the arena to watch it in the flesh.

Perhaps more galling was the fact that no mainstream British broadcaster chose to pick up the fight, the rights going instead to pay-per-view providers, Fite TV. 

Taylor, like many Scots sportsmen and women, has often found it difficult to win over an English audience that never quite knew how to take this gallus and often spiky individual.

It was perhaps Taylor’s misfortune not to have worked under a promotional giant like Eddie Hearn or Frank Warren until right at the very end of his career, someone who would have given his talent the publicity it undoubtedly deserved. 

It will be instructive to see if this articulate and often charismatic figure now picks up regular television work as a ringside commentator or pundit as would seem the natural next path following his decision to hang up the gloves.

Taylor’s ability as a boxer, however, was never in question. Tall for the 140lbs division, tough as teak, durable and able to box or brawl as required, the self-styled Tartan Tornado showed early glimpses of his pedigree in an amateur career guided by legendary trainer Terry McCormack that saw his appearance at the London 2012 Olympics book-ended by Commonwealth Games silver and gold medals won in Delhi and Glasgow respectively.

Turning professional in 2015 under the guidance of Barry and Shane McGuigan, Taylor benefited from being a team-mate of Carl Frampton’s just as the Northern Irishman was competing for world honours. 

Taylor would often fight on the undercard of major contests before becoming a champion in his own right when he claimed the Commonwealth belt in Meadowbank in just his seventh fight.

It was the creation of the World Boxing Super Series that fast-tracked his journey to world level, setting up a best vs best knockout format among the leading contenders in each division, eliminating the usual messing about that often accompanies attempts to put together a major fight.

Taylor already held the WBC silver strap when he defeated American Ryan Martin in the quarter-final to set up a last-four bout with Ivan Baranchyk at the Hydro in May 2019. 

More importantly, the Belarusian also held the IBF title and Taylor eased it from his grasp, flooring Baranchyk twice on his way to a points win to become a world champion in just his 15th fight.

The final would take place in London later that year against the highly-fancied American, Regis Prograis, but again Taylor would prove too strong as he added the WBA belt to his growing collection of silverware, before conquering the rest of the division by beating Ramirez two years later. 

The collective record at the time of his six opponents from Viktor Postol to Ramirez was a staggering 136-1. Nobody could say he had done it the easy way, especially with the Prograis and Ramirez fights taking place away from his home comforts.

Becoming undisputed champion should have given Taylor the platform to rule at super-lightweight for years to come or prompt a move up to welterweight where he could have asserted himself at the bigger weight category, having started to struggle to boil down to 140lbs in later contests.

Instead, complacency and inactivity led to his downfall. He was fortunate to hold onto all his belts in his homecoming bout with Jack Catterall early in 2022 - gaining a very fortunate nod from the judges - but again didn’t heed the warnings. 

Now on the wrong side of 30, the hunger seemed to have gone out of him, something he acknowledged when he compared fighting Catterall to strolling up Arthur’s Seat after scaling Everest by beating Ramirez.

Teofimo Lopez took his last remaining world title from him in a one-sided fight in New York in 2023 before Catterall got his revenge - if little glory - in the pair’s 2024 rematch. 

Taylor was now very much on the slide, although he was still full of spark and optimism when he belatedly stepped up to welterweight earlier this year for a match-up with Ekow Essuman.

Now training in Liverpool with Joe McNally, Taylor’s dream was to go on to become a two-weight world champion but that ambition never got out of the starter’s gate, Taylor laboured and ponderous as he fell to the third defeat of his career against a middling opponent who would have been swept aside contemptuously in his prime.

The struggles of the last few years, however, shouldn’t tarnish the legacy of one of Britain’s greatest ever fighters. He never did get to live out his dream of fighting at the home of his beloved Hibs or on the promenade at Edinburgh Castle but the boy from Prestonpans undoubtedly shook up the world on his way to the very top.