Josh Taylor and Ekow Essuman went face to face ahead of their clash in Glasgow on Saturday night.
‘Land of the Brave’ takes place at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow when a new, welterweight version of Taylor will take on former British champion Essuman.
He makes his debut at the weight, having been undisputed champion at the weight below, shown live on DAZN Worldwide.
Also on the bumper card is future heavyweight star Moses Itauma who takes on Mike Balugon who’s only loss was against Murat Gassiev. In a pair of all-Scottish match-ups, Nathaniel Collins faces Lee McGregor while Aston Brown and Reece Porter will go at it in a battle of unbeaten prospects.
An intriguing cruiserweight clash sees Aloys Junior and David Jamieson contest Junior’s WBA Continental and the vacant Commonwealth Championships. While the sons of two Scottish boxing legends, Alex Arthur Jr and Drew Limond, make their pro debuts.
The final press conference took place at the Scottish Event Campus this afternoon.
Francis Warren
“It is an absolutely great show to reintroduce Queensberry back in Scotland. We have had some terrific nights here over the years and it is an absolute pleasure to be back. It is fantastic to be working with Josh and what he has done in this sport is second to none, literally, with him being the only guy in the UK to be undisputed in the four-belt era.
“Ekow has decided this is the challenge he wants to take and it is going to take a phenomenal effort from him to come up to Josh’s hometown and disrupt what I am sure Josh wants to be a successful campaign at welterweight. But Ekow has got his own ambitions at world level and, if he does come up here and do the business on Josh, he is making a real statement. Josh also wants to make a big dent in the world scene.
“We’ve got some terrific youngsters on the undercard as well, local guys, and it is a pleasure to be back in Glasgow alongside a couple that we brought up from down south in Aloys and Moses. I am looking forward to a cracking night on Saturday.”
Josh Taylor
“It is great to be back here and this has been my home since the Commonwealth Games. I’ve had most of my big fights here, Victor Postol, my first world title against Ivan Baranchyk, so I’ve had most of my big nights here, so I am looking forward to getting back. It has been a little while since I’ve been here, so I am looking to put on a big show on Saturday.
“Obviously training has been gruesome and hard, hard work, but it feels like I am at holiday camp this week. No dieting, cutting weight or drying out tonight, getting the last bit of water you can out of you. There is none of that this week, I am full of beans, full of energy with a spring in my step. I can’t wait to get going on Saturday.
“I will get this journey rebooted and kickstarted again. Take care of business on Saturday, do it in a good fashion and look forward to moving on to big fights in the future.
“At 140lbs what else was there left for me to do? I’d completed boxing in a sense and won every single belt in boxing you can win. What else was there for me in terms of challenges, setting new targets? There was nothing to do. So, what there was, was moving up with an assault on becoming a two-time, two-weight world champion.
“I am planning on taking this guy out on Saturday and that is what I’m going to do.”
Ekow Essuman
“Thank you to everyone in Glasgow for accepting me, everyone has been extremely welcoming and it is a beautiful place. I am just happy to be here.
“That is the whole point of it, we’re supposed to do that [in response to Taylor’s taking out comment]. I don’t take offence to it, it is what it is. He’s in my way, I’m in his way.
“Of course he believes it, he should. That is good, if he wants to try and end it early it might be to his detriment. We are going to find out on Saturday. I came prepared for the best Josh Taylor there can be, so this is just confirming what I thought would come.
“It doesn’t matter about being his backyard or if it was back in Nottingham or in London. I don’t have a lot of shows I’ve boxed on in my home city, like big shows, so I am used to being the away fighter.
“It is just same job, different venue.”
