Josh Taylor Moves to Top Rank and Closer to 140-Pound Classic Against Jose Ramirez

Opening The Door: Josh Taylor moves to Top Rank and closer to 140-pound classic against Jose Ramirez By Norm Frauenheim- Top Rank’s roster got deeper and its reach grew farther with Thursday’s surprising announcement that it had signed Josh Taylor, the Scottish junior-welterweight whose imminent stardom was evident in his majority decision over Regis Prograis for two of the 140-pound belts in late October. It was the second signing of worldwide significance for Top Rank, which signed bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue on the same day in November when he beat Nonito Donaire in a Fight of the Year performance. From Japan to Scotland, the sun never sets on Top Rank’s promotional empire these days. The top of the pound-for-pound debate provides a pretty good look at a promotional roster that is long on substance and name recognition. Among the top five, the order changes, but three are Top Rank fighters – Terence Crawford, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Inoue. Canelo Alvarez of Golden Boy and Errol Spence Jr. of PBC complete the elite five. There’s a chance, a good one, that more Top Rank fighters will begin to climb into pound-for-pound consideration on Top Rank’s ESPN schedule throughout 2020. There’s light- heavyweight Artur Beterbiev, junior-welterweight Jose Ramirez, lightweight Teofimo Lopez, featherweight Shakur Stevenson, junior-featherweight Emanuel Navarrete and now Taylor. For Taylor, it all depends on how he does against Ramirez. Taylor’s new deal opened the door for a Taylor-Ramirez fight for all of the relevant pieces to the 140-pound puzzle. Look for that one later in year. First, Ramirez has a date against Viktor Postol on Feb. 2 in China. On several levels, Taylor’s move is intriguing and controversial. It further stoked the fires of an already hot rivalry between Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn of the UK and Top Rank’s Bob Arum. Hearn in early 2020 is to Arum what Don King was to a younger Arum late in the last century. They just don’t like each other. Arum is not shy about Hearn’s move into the United States. He threw verbal bombs at Hearn for Matchroom’s Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Danny Jacobs fight in Phoenix on Dec. 20 before fans threw beer bombs at Chavez when he decided not to continue after five rounds. Less than a month later, Arum moves into Hearn’s backyard and signs Taylor, who is Top Rank’s answer to Matchroom’s signing of Mikey Garcia last month. The controversial side to Taylor’s move to Top Rank involves Barry McGuigan, who fired off a statement to UK media Thursday, saying Taylor was still under contract to Cyclone Promotions. Taylor quickly countered with a statement of his own, saying he had ended the deal with Cyclone. “I terminated my promotional agreement with Cyclone as a result of various breaches of contract including, in particular, breaches relating to a conflict of interest on the part of the promoter,” he said. “That allowed me to search for a new promoter, which I have found in Top Rank. I wanted to part ways amicably and without resorting to court proceedings [and] I thought and hoped the McGuigans would feel the same way given the litigation they are involved in with other fighters.’’ Cyclone Promotions has been in and out of court with Carl Frampton, a former featherweight champion from Belfast who is recovering from hand surgery in hopes of fighting junior- lightweight champion Jamel Herring in May. The controversy figures to continue. But boxing wouldn’t be what it is without turmoil. On both sides of the ropes, the business is always fighting, yet always resilient enough to recreate itself with bouts worth watching. Taylor-Ramirez is one of them..

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