Josh Taylor realizes his last two performances were the worst of his eight-year professional career.

The former undisputed 140-pound champion can’t believe, though, that some detractors don’t even consider him an elite-level fighter anymore. The 33-year-old Taylor emphasized during a recent interview with IFL TV that he remains one of the sport’s top talents and intends to prove it during his probable second fight with Jack Catterall and subsequent meaningful fights in the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions.

Representatives for Scotland’s Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs) and England’s Catterall (28-1, 13 KOs) are negotiating to finalize a deal for their rescheduled rematch in March or April.

“I’ve got plenty left,” Taylor stated during an interview that was posted recently to IFL TV’s YouTube channel. “You know what? So, I’ve had one loss. I’ve had one loss, so now I’m, all of a sudden, finished. You know, had a bad performance against Jack. And then, I don’t know, sort of OK performance against [Teofimo] Lopez. But again, it wasn’t my best. But I’ve had one loss, so what, is that me finished? Is that me finished? Come on. All the greats in the past have had losses, multiple losses, but they’re still great fighters.

“So yes, I’m a great fighter. Of course, the hunger’s still there. I’ve got ambitions to obviously get this rematch done with Jack, hopefully, at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later. And then move on, get him out of the way, move on and hopefully become a two-weight world champion. That’s the goals I wanna set. You know, I’ve achieved everything I can at 140, so in terms of achievement-wise and belts, I’ve done it all.”

Taylor owned the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 140-pound championships when he edged Catterall by split decision in February 2022 at OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.

Their rematch was scheduled for last March 4 at OVO Hydro, but it was postponed late last January because Taylor suffered a foot injury while training. Taylor-Catterall II was then scrapped altogether because the WBO ordered Taylor to make a defense of its junior welterweight title against Lopez, his mandatory challenger.

Las Vegas’ Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) outboxed Taylor and won a 12-round unanimous decision June 10 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York

Taylor acknowledged that he lost to Lopez, but the 2012 Olympian contends that he did enough to win what he admits was a completely competitive fight with Catterall.

The left-handed Taylor still plans to move up and test himself in the welterweight division after he encounters Catterall again.

“So, I wanna move up to welter and hopefully become a two-weight world champion, start chasing titles up there,” Taylor said. “You know, see what the lay of the land is in terms with the belts, if they become available, if Terence [Crawford] moves up or vacates or anything like that. So, the future’s bright. You know what I mean?

“There’s huge fights both at 140 and 147. So, you’ve got Devin Haney coming up, and all these [Ryan] Garcias and all that coming up as well, so there’s a lotta options are there, a lotta options are there and big fights. And that’s what I’m still in the game for, is to be involved in these big fights and produce big nights. So yeah, I can’t wait.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.