Skip to main content
General Strike Anniversary
Josh Taylor v Jose Ramirez
Josh Taylor

PRESTONPANS is a small fishing town eight miles east of Edinburgh. It is renowned as the site of the battle fought near there in 1745 between the Jacobite forces of pretender to the British throne, Charles Edward Stuart, and the government forces of Hanoverian Redcoats, led by Sir John Cope. 

It was the first battle of the ill-fated Jacobite uprising of the same year and ended after 30 minutes with the Hanoverian forces being routed in the face of the famous Highland charge.

Prestonpans’s most famous son today is Josh Taylor, a boxer who fights for nobody’s throne but his own. This weekend he steps into the ring to face California’s likewise undefeated Jose Ramirez in Las Vegas for the right to be considered the undisputed king of the light welterweight division. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Britain’s biggest hunger strike in decades – and the media won’t touch it
Features / 4 December 2025
4 December 2025

As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports

Lewis Hamilton before the Hungarian Grand Prix, August 3, 2025
Formula One / 18 August 2025
18 August 2025
Former boxer and trainer of John Hedges Ricky Hatton at the Copper Box Arena, London, May 17, 2025
Men’s boxing / 7 July 2025
7 July 2025
Algeria�s Imane Khelif (left) in action against Thailand�s Janjaem Suwannapheng during the Women�s 66kg Semi-Final at Roland-Garros Stadium on the Eleventh day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in France. Picture date: Tuesday August 6, 2024
Boxing / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

The Khelif gender row shows no sign of being resolved to the satisfaction of anyone involved anytime soon, says boxing writer JOHN WIGHT