"I would relish any challenge like that. He's the pound-for-pound No 1 in the sport. I would love the chance to fight him."
Wednesday 23 October 2019 14:26, UK
Josh Taylor remembers thinking 'I should be in there' against Vasiliy Lomachenko in an amateur fight that he withdrew from due to injury.
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Six years later Lomachenko is rated as the world's top pound-for-pound boxer, and Taylor is aiming to win the World Boxing Super Series and unified super-lightweight title against Regis Prograis on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
"I had the opportunity to box him twice in the amateurs but I broke my hand," Taylor told Sky Sports about Lomachenko.
"Sam Maxwell had the pleasure of doing it twice. I was gutted. I watched those fights - I was thinking: 'I want to be in there'.
"Sam did well and gave a good account of himself but I was gutted not to be in the ring."
Lomachenko was representing Ukraine at London's York Hall in a 2013 amateur tournament when he boxed Team GB's Maxwell for the second time, but it might have been Taylor had he not been injured.
More recently, three-weight world champion Lomachenko beat Taylor's gym-mate Luke Campbell in a lightweight title fight but made it clear that he wouldn't challenge in a fourth division, where Taylor and Prograis lurk.
"We're going to fight the best fighters at featherweight, the best fighters at super-featherweight and the best fighters at lightweight," Lomachenko's promoter Bob Arum said.
Taylor has now warned that Lomachenko would be foolish to venture up at super-lightweight.
"He's at the limit of moving up divisions," Taylor said. "He's small. He's done well at lightweight but by coming up another 5lbs? The bigger guys in the division would be just too big for him.
"Five pounds weighing in is not an awful lot. But by the time we hydrate and get into the ring? We put on a lot of size and weight. Bigger guys would be too strong for him.
"I would relish any challenge like that. He's the pound-for-pound No 1 in the sport. I would love the chance to fight him."
Watch the WBSS final and Chisora vs Price on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office, from 7pm. Book it via your Sky remote or book it online here. Even if you aren't a Sky TV subscriber you can book and watch it here.
