THE TARTAN TORNADO RETURNS IN ANOTHER ALL-BRITISH BANGER

There’s only one Brit who has been undisputed world champion in the four-belt era, and that man is Prestonpans’ very own Josh Taylor. This week, he returns to the home of some of his greatest triumphs when he faces Ekow Essuman at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow.

In the main event, the pride of Scotland, Josh Taylor, takes centre stage for the first time at the SSE Hydro since his victory over Jack Catterall back in 2022, as he steps up to welterweight to face former British and Commonwealth champ Ekow Essuman in a really intriguing contest.

Both fighters have had their struggles of late, with Essuman losing his titles to Harry Scarff at the end of 2023. However, he has recorded back-to-back wins over then-undefeated prospects Owen Cooper and, most recently, Ben Vaughan in November.

Taylor, meanwhile, goes into the fight off the back of two straight defeats.

The first came against Teofimo Lopez, and the most recent at the hands of rival Jack Catterall almost a year ago to the day.

With both fighters now arguably past their prime, it makes for a really intriguing contest.

Despite being a similar height, Taylor has a massive four-inch reach advantage, and he’s going to need to make the most of that.

Essuman is a talented, come-forward fighter, but if Taylor boxes the right fight, he should be able to use that big-fight experience and long southpaw reach advantage to offset the Nottingham man and pick him off.

Taylor cannot afford to be dragged into a dogfight — which he loves doing — because if he does that, he’ll just play into Essuman’s hands.

One thing is for sure though: their styles will certainly gel, and it’ll make for a really entertaining fight.

In the chief support, the undefeated Nathaniel Collins goes toe-to-toe with Lee McGregor in a thrilling Glasgow vs Edinburgh showdown for the vacant WBC Silver Featherweight Title.

Now unbeaten in 16 fights, Collins has excelled of late, with standout victories over the likes of James Beech Jnr, Raza Hamza and Zak Miller in a run of wins that saw him become British and Commonwealth champion.

McGregor, on the other hand, has been plagued with problems outside of the ring, which contributed to his shock defeat to Erik Robles Ayala at the end of 2023.

Since then, though, the man who was once touted to fight Naoya Inoue has well and truly resurrected his career following his move up in weight, with his most impressive win coming over Isaac Lowe at the end of last year.

This is a proper 50/50 — a fight you do not want to miss.

Also on the undercard, arguably the best prospect in the heavyweight division, Moses Itauma, returns to action against Mike Balogun as he looks to take one step closer to a potential world title shot in the next 18 months. Meanwhile, the hard-hitting Aloys Youmbi clashes with local favourite David Jamieson in an enticing cruiserweight encounter.

Amateur standout Reese Lynch fights for the first time as a professional, whilst Alex Arthur Jr, son of former interim world champion Alex Arthur, also makes his debut in the paid ranks.

Big-time boxing is back with a bang in Scotland.