Josh Taylor believes fighting for a world title on Sky Sports will make the wider boxing public sit up and take more notice of him.
The Edinburgh fighter takes on Belarusian Ivan Baranchyk at the SSE Hyrdo in Glasgow on 18 May for the IBF super lightweight world title as well as place in the WBSS Ali Trophy final.
His quarter-final bout against American Ryan Martin – a display Taylor ranks as the “best of his career” - was streamed live on the WBSS Youtube channel.
Sky Sports are broadcasting the Baranchyk encounter however, and Taylor is ready to show an increased audience he belongs at world level by taking the title.
“The fight being on Sky is great” he told Edinburgh Live . “It helps in terms of the profile and all the press stuff, which we’ll be doing next week, and we’re really going to ramp up the fight.
“My last fight against Ryan Martin was probably the best performance of my career, but it was only on Youtube so maybe a lot of people didn’t really know much about it or that it was even on.
Josh Taylor doesn't believe Ivan Baranchyk wants to be in Glasgow for world title fight
“This opens me up to the wider boxing public.”
Taylor has said previously he doesn’t believe Baranchyk’s people truly want to take on the Scot on home turf, and that is playing to his advantage.
“I don’t think it was really him, more his management and people that don’t want to be here,” he said. “Coming to Glasgow and making the first defence of his title against me on home turf.
“That’s good for me psychologically. It means I can get in his head next week.”
Taylor will finish off the hard work in terms of training tonight before heading to Scotland next Tuesday to begin all the fight week media promotion duties.
“I’ll do my last hard punching session tonight then it’s about relaxing a bit and just chilling out ahead of the fight,” he explained.
'I want to become the first Scottish undisputed world champion since Ken Buchanan' - Josh Taylor
“I’m still in London just now but I’ll come up to Glasgow next Tuesday and the build up and press stuff will really begin.
“My chest still swells a bit when I come back to Scotland for fights. I love fighting here in front of a home crowd and to do it for a world title fight is brilliant. I can’t wait.”
Taylor is now based London permanently, but is there anything he misses about his home city? “No, not really to be honest...maybe the fresh air and the seaside! Being in London you need to drive about two or three hours to see any water!
“I don’t really get to see much when I’m back up in Scotland anyway – I’m always in training and in the gym so I’m kind of cut off a bit from what’s going on around me.”
Tickets for the fight are available here
