Only six men in boxing have become the undisputed champion of their weight division in the “four belt era” by simultaneously holding the WBA, WBO, IBF and WBC world championships.

Jermain Taylor and Bernard Hopkins were able to complete the rare feat at middleweight, Terence Crawford held all of the light-welterweight gold before moving up and boxing’s current biggest star Canelo Alvarez was the most recent to do it after blowing through the super middleweight division.

That’s 5 undisputed champions of the world. The other man?

The other man hails from Prestonpans, a small mining town eight miles east of Edinburgh, who isn’t a household name or commercial success like other British champions have been in the past decade but he is considered to currently be the best pound-for-pound (P4P) fighter to hail from these isles.

He’s a man that didn’t even have his defining career moment, beating Jose Ramirez to become undisputed champion broadcast live by a British TV outlet, instead finding himself relegated to a quietly promoted showing on Fite TV.

That man is Josh Taylor and he deserves better.

A Commonwealth gold medallist in 2014, the “Tartan Tornado” has been able to unify the WBA, WBO, IBF and WBC titles at light-welterweight after dispatching the division’s very best and also holds The Ring belt for good measure.

Taylor now faces a well-deserved raucous welcome home this Saturday night at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow when the champion puts all of his gold on the line against a game and undefeated mandatory challenger in Jack Catterall.

He’s listed as 5^th in the P4P rankings by The Ring and is rumoured to be moving up the weight divisions to compete in mega-fights with the likes of Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. soon. Taylor seems to have the world at his feet.

So why would the majority of the British public struggle to pick him out from a lineup, never mind consider themselves aware of his achievements or to be a fan of his?

Is it because the 31-year-old has a methodical, points scoring style that can come across as a bit boring to the average weekend fight fan? No, that’s arguably the complete opposite to what Taylor brings to the ring.

Since setting his sights on the world honours, the southpaw has been involved in some thrilling matchups. He had a genuine Fight of the Year-level back and forth with Regis Prograis in October 2019 at the 02 Arena, a fight which was broadcast on Sky Sports Box Office.

The Scot is an aggressive boxer that is happy to trade up close and personal with 13 finishes coming in his 18 professional career wins. He can box beautifully as well when the situation calls for it. He obliterated the previously undefeated Apinun Khongsong in one round at York Hall in 2020 and floored Ramirez in back-to-back rounds last May on the way to becoming the undisputed champ.

Then is it because Taylor’s opponents have been conveniently selected to provide him the easiest path to success, with promoters Top Rank doing their best to safeguard him from defeat, but diminishing his achievements in the eyes of fans?

No, again, it’s the complete opposite as Taylor has had to power through the cream of the crop at 140 lbs to win each of the titles he currently holds. His past six opponents held a combined record of 136-1 before facing Taylor and he remains the only person to have beaten Prograis, Ramirez and Khonsong. He also took the IBF title and the 0 from the record of Ivan Baranchyk.

It isn’t a conscious move by Sky Sports, who have been Taylor’s main platform in the UK, and the press to shy away from a fighter that is aggressively patriotic and doesn’t see himself as a British fighter either.

In fact, in a fight week where Sky and some boxing channels have tried to lean into the Scotland v England narrative to hype the fight with Catterall, Taylor has maintained that he represents fans from across the UK.

So what is Taylor’s problem when it comes to receiving the recognition he deserves?

An argument can be made that simply being a light-welterweight has dimmed Taylor’s star power, as lighter weights don’t generate the money and excitement that the heavyweights do. Also, while being terrific fighters, neither Prograis or Ramirez have the name recognition of Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr. in the weight division above.

Josh has also had a quiet past couple of years despite becoming THE MAN in his division, with Saturday’s bout with Catterall being only his third outing in 2 years due to the pandemic, injuries and the politics involved in setting up matchups between the champions of different governing bodies.

More activity, especially during the bulk of the pandemic where more people turned to boxing as an escape and cure for boredom, would have meant more eyes on Scotland’s best boxer of modern times.

Taylor hasn’t been involved in a real domestic rivalry that fans could sink their teeth into either, the kind that really captures the imagination like Froch/Groves or Joshua/Whyte did, with the majority of his victories coming against foreign fighters.

The “Tartan Tornado” is one of the best in the world right now and it’s criminal that he isn’t being spoken about in workplaces and pubs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland this week as he gets ready to compete in the first ever all-British undisputed championship bout featuring the four major pieces of hardware.

Hopefully some of that is set right this weekend when Taylor faces off against Catterall, in a fight that he’s expected to get through successfully but could descend into a dogfight, with Sky hoping they retain the attention of a good portion of the fans who tuned in for Khan vs. Brook last week.

If Taylor does come through this defence, the noise about him moving up to welterweight for those super-fights with Crawford and Spence will only increase, as the WBO have confirmed that Taylor is now their “super champion” at light-welterweight.

That means he can immediately become Crawford’s mandatory challenger should he win on Saturday night and decide to move up to welterweight.

Maybe then he’ll get what he deserves.

Photo Credits: Top Rank, The Guardian