RISK versus reward. That was the age-old equation Josh Taylor and his manager Barry McGuigan had to weigh up before deciding to enter the World Boxing Super Series. Despite being mandatory challenger for a crack at Jose Ramirez’s WBC belt, the Scot took the plunge to participate in what promoter Kalle Sauerland calls the ‘Champions League of boxing’, all bank-rolled by the deep pockets of backers Comosa AG. Some would see tonight’s quarter-final against another promising, unbeaten fighter in the form of Ryan Martin of the USA as risky business. Taylor doesn’t see it that way.

He would rather focus on the rewards which could flow on the back of it. And no wonder. On top of the life-changing money which is coming his way, all going well in three fights’ time, he could have two world titles in his possession, the IBF version currently belonging to Ivan Baranchyk of Belarus and the WBA version, currently owned by Baranchyk’s countryman Kiryl Relikh.And that isn’t all. Not only can you throw in the small matter of the Muhammad Ali trophy, but the titles would also give the Scot the leverage to bring Ramirez back to the table for the megabucks fight to unify the weight class and sort out once and for all who can call themselves undisputed champion of the lightweight division.

“Every fight is a risk, every time you jump in the ring it is a risk,” said Taylor. “But I don’t see it as a risk with my career. I see it as an opportunity to become world champion sooner than I had originally hoped.

“One of the things about boxing, to get two belts, it can take years to happen, with different promoters and managers, all that stuff,” he added. “This way, I can get two in two fights. If I win this fight on Saturday, I’m then fighting for a world title, and the next fight is for another belt. So that speeds up the process of what I want to achieve.

“I could be ruling the division in the next year or two years,” he added. “I could be undisputed world champion of the division - which is another long-term goal of mine. To get these two belts in three fights, then hopefully realise my dream of becoming undisputed world champion in the division in the space of 18 months, it is a no brainer.”

Having said that, there is no suggestion of the Scot getting ahead of himself. He gives the utmost respect to Martin, a low key yet dangerous fighter who works out of the legendary Summit gym under Abel Sanchez at Big Bear Lake, California. “It is one fight at a time, every time, I don’t think about all the noise that is going on round about me, I have never thought about that. These are real 50/50 fights. But I am confident of winning every one.”

Taylor’s promoter Barry McGuigan wishes this competition had been around in his day, although he accepts that the quarter finals so far, which have seen favourite Regis Prograis get through on points against Terry Flanagan, and Baranchyk stop Anthony Yigit of Sweden, show that there are no guarantees.

“If you look at the tournament, every fight is going to be tough for everybody. You had Regis Prograis, who who beat Flanagan but don’t believe this b****** about him saying ‘I wanted to go 12 rounds to show that I was adaptable.’ If he’d could have gotten him out of there in a minute he would’ve been delighted. He couldn’t.

“Then Ivan Baranchyk busted yer man Yigit up bad, but we’ve sparred with [Anthony] Yigit and we know what Josh would do to him so I’m confident. Again, without jumping the gun, I’m confident my man will win the entire tournament, but we’ve got to prove that we can do that. We’re going to be tested in every department at every stage in the event. I just hope we can get as many of the fights here as we can, because they’ll be going all over the place.”

While it is a source of mystery to everyone involved with the business that discussions to land a terrestrial television backer proved fruitless - the fight only being screened on YouTube and the WBSS website – McGuigan feels that entering this competition was a no-brainer. “We’d worked Josh in to position for the WBC title but in reality, you fight Jose Ramirez who’s the top ranked fighter, who’s got a magnificent television deal out in the States and the likelihood is we would probably have to had to go to the west coast of America to fight for the title. Josh would’ve been up for that and we would’ve been confidenthe would have won it, but we wouldn’t have gotten any favours and we probably wouldn’t have gotten him a great deal of money.

“Josh is looking great but he needs to be, because this guy’s good,” said McGuigan. “He’s in the fast lane now. But there’s those who’d say he’s been in the fast lane since the moment he signed! Our policy has always been; don’t mess with boys. If you’ve got a kid that’s world class, you can take calculated risks.”