MARTIN TAYLOR LOOKING FORWARD TO RETURN
Martin Taylor takes on Ahmed Ibrahim on Saturday for the Scottish Super Lightweight title.
The fight takes place at the Lagoon in Paisley as part of a card including some of Scotland's up and coming fighters. Headlining the show is Hannah Rankin who is bidding to become Scotlands first female world champion.
Taylor was meant to fight for the title before now but was ruled out with an injury.
"I was meant to box (Aiden) McGlynn four weeks after my last fight but picked up some injuries in the fight that took a bit of time to get back to 100%." Taylor explained.
"Then we were set to box in February but I was told he couldn’t get training as him and his partner had a child. I’m a father of two boys so I can understand him not being able to train with a new born there. It’s still a fight that could easily be made in the future and I’m sure it will."
Taylor is looking forward to returning to action and becoming Livingston's first champion. "Yes I am," Taylor said, "I’m in the best shape of my life for this fight and being for the title definitely makes it a little bit more special. Especially knowing that no one from Livingston has ever brought a title back to the town. "I expect the toughest fight of my career and thats what I’ve trained for, I’m ready to go on the 15th June."
Both Taylor and Ibrahim are part of the Kynoch Boxing stable, he doesn't feel this will make things awkward between the pair. "I don’t see things being awkward between us to be honest, I’ve got a job to do on the 15th June and that’s winning the Super Light Weight Scottish Title. After that I’m happy to help him rebuild and come back. We are all in this game to do our best but help each other as well, I am anyway and will be here if needed."
Training has went well for Taylor as he explains, "Training has went fantastic, I started training very early with my friend Chris who is Ex Armed Forces and Ex Militarily PT Core so helped me get in great shape before I even started boxing and strength and conditioning, Also Ben Crook from Blueberry Nutrition has done my diet for this fight as well as my last fight so everything in this training camp from start to finish has went perfect."
BBC Scotland have announced they are showing live coverage of both title fights on Saturday, exposing the fighters concerned to a nationwide audience. It's a huge boost for the sport in Scotland and continues on from the channel showing Kash Farooq's British defence recently.
"Yeah, BBC Scotland is showing both title fights which I’m extremely grateful for. It will be an absolute great night for Scottish Boxing, for Kynoch Promotions and for all the fighters involved." Taylor said.
Taylor for his part is not looking past this fight and looking further down the horizon. "I always just take one fight at a time so once I’ve got this fight done I will get a sit down with my manager Sam Kynoch and boxing coach Kenny McCartney and see what options we have either here at home or further a field."
The Scottish title fight and also Hannah Rankin vs Sarah Curran can be watched on the new BBC Scotland channel as well as on iPlayer via the Scotland section.
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