Having been just four seconds away from winning the British and Commonwealth welterweight titles in his first opportunity, Liam Taylor has had to wait more than four years for his second shot at the prestigious belts. But his long wait is almost over. 

The British Boxing Board of Control recently ordered current British and Commonwealth champion Harry Scarff to defend his Lonsdale Belt against Taylor. Purse bids are scheduled to open April 10.

In November 2019, Taylor (27-2-1, 14 KOs) dropped then-champion Chris Jenkins in the second round of their fight and was leading on points when, with just four seconds of the fourth round remaining, an accidental clash of heads opened a cut over Jenkins’ left eye.

The fight was halted immediately and declared a technical draw. Had the ringside doctor allowed Jenkins to finish the round, the fight would have gone to the scorecards and Taylor would have been crowned the new champion. 

Trainer Steve Maylett told BoxingScene that he expects Tayor, 33, from Middleton, U.K., shouldn’t have to be patient much longer.

“Last week, the Board put it out again that they want to try and get this fight on,” Maylett said. “That’s fair play to them. They can’t leave the British title sitting on the shelf for six to nine months. It’s too prestigious. You only have to watch the fight between Nathan Heaney and Brad Pauls last weekend to see just what it means to these fighters. They are some of the best fights of the year. We can’t be having titles sat about for nine or 12 months and not fought for.”

Scarff (13-2, 3 KOs) is known as “Horrible Harry,” but he has been anything but since dropping down from super welterweight two years ago. He widely outpointed Louis Greene to win the English title, and followed that by putting in an excellent display to take the British and Commonwealth titles from Ekow Essuman last November. Scarff was then quickly nominated to box Ukraine’s Karen Chukhadzian in a final eliminator for a shot at Jaron Ennis’ IBF welterweight title.

In February, Wasserman Boxing won that purse bid, setting up a fight between Scarff and Chukhadzian at some point this summer.

Two weeks ago, Taylor forced former British title challenger Sam O’Maison to retire after just a single round. O’Maison and Maylett will now stay in the gym and wait for a date. 

“I think they’re saying the fight needs to be done by August time,” Maylett said. “I think it’ll be August or September. Good luck to Scarff, who’s got an IBF eliminator coming up. I believe if he wins that, he might vacate. But if he doesn’t, we’ll be sat here ready and waiting for him.”