AN ELITE fighter operating in his prime reminds us of the wondrous potential of the human mind and body when elevated to its fullest potential. Watching a prime Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ken Buchanan, Muhammad Ali et al in action is to experience vicariously what it’s like to touch transcendence.

On Saturday night in Glasgow Josh Taylor will climb into a boxing room in Scotland for the first time since achieving the high status of undisputed champion against Jose Ramirez in Las Vegas in May last year. In so doing he can look forward to the kind of reception that has been long overdue up to this point, given his achievements in the sport and the speed at which he has achieved them.

Watching him shadowboxing during the ritual media workout on Wednesday was to watch a fighter who has perfected his craft. Blistering hand-speed combined with beautiful footwork and balance suggests that his undefeated challenger, England’s Jack Catterall, will have to box out of his skin just to survive, never mind win.

This being said though, boxing is not an exact science. All it takes is a millisecond to turn disaster into victory, such is the capricious nature of a business that taps into our species being in an act of rebellion against dominant cultural values which prize safety over danger and security over risk.

Taylor is so exciting to watch precisely because he fights not with caution but abandon, wherein he unleashes his entire being and spirit in a package of preternatural intensity — this to the extent that you come away from his fights certain that if he had his way he’d much rather dispense with a ring and settle matters inside a barrel.

At the OVO Hydro arena in Glasgow in front of a raucous sold-out crowd, he will need to be mindful that he has an opponent to face, such will be the reception he receives. Catterall is coming to fight and mount a serious attempt to rip the belts from Taylor’s possession and establish his own legacy in a sport in which cash not legacy is typically king.

This has the potential to be a classic banana skin moment for Josh Taylor, given Catterall’s determination to rip up the script and turn Josh Taylor’s undisputed homecoming celebration into a lament. But then Josh Taylor is a fighter who thrives on pressure and relishes the big occasion. Both as an amateur and pro, he has proven time and again that whenever a door is put in front of him at seminal moments in his career, he doesn’t walk he crashes through it.

Beyond Jack Catterall on Saturday, the self-styled Tartan Tornado is looking at moving up from super lightweight to welterweight after this weekend. There the mouthwatering likes of Terence Crawford, Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, Vergil Ortez, Danny Garcia – the list goes on – await. There is also at welterweight the tantalising prospect of the Scot facing Britain’s rising star, Conor Benn, somewhere down the line, assuming that the latter’s career progresses at its current ferocious rate.

Since decamping to Ben Davison from the McGuigan stable, Josh Taylor hasn’t looked back, enjoying with Sky’s backing the kind of set-up that ensures he is on the cusp of crossing over to becoming a household name beyond the confines of boxing. “Unhappy is the land in need of a hero,” goes Brecht’s admonition, and if ever an unhappy land needed one it is Scotland in the midst of a late capitalist hell that has fallen on top of the heads of the Scottish working class like an atom bomb.

When Ricky Burns was filling arenas in Glasgow, he was an empty vessel into which was poured the hopes and dreams of his legion of fans. His fights were events at which a palpable bond was forged between him and them, during which thwarted dreams, disappointed ambitions and frustrated lives were temporarily replaced by the glory he was forging in the ring.

Taylor now picks up this particular baton and will doubtless do so with requisite pride.

On paper, this should be a comfortable defence for Josh Taylor. His resumé is significantly more impressive than Jack Catterall’s, possesses the attributes of an elite fighter to the extent Catterall does not, and is fortified by the confidence of an athlete in his prime.

Taylor’s confidence is justified. He’s that rare fighter who is near complete. He can fight on the front foot, back foot, has superb reflexes, a vast array of shots, can mix it inside and keep it long. What he can’t afford to do – and what he most assuredly won’t – is rest on his well-earned laurels against Catterall.

Jack Catterall, after 26 fights, has in front of him the opportunity of a lifetime to claim the title of undisputed in just one fight. He has it all to do and nothing to lose. Josh Taylor is set on making him lose consciousness.

It’s that simple…and it’s that profound.