Josh Taylor remains hopeful that his next fight will still be a rematch with Jack Catterall.

The former undisputed 140-pound hopes, too, that Catterall’s handlers realize that their initial financial offer wasn’t close to what it’ll take to secure a deal for their second fight. Taylor disputed during an interview with IFL TV that Catterall’s team has made multiple offers for their 12-round rematch, which is the most marketable fight for both boxers if they’re going to compete in the United Kingdom.

Scotland’s Taylor, 33, hasn’t fought since Teofimo Lopez dealt the former IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 140-pound champion his first professional defeat June 10 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Taylor acknowledged that he wants to beat Catterall convincingly because Taylor’s 12-round, split-decision win in February 2022 was considered controversial. Taylor also stressed that he wants to be paid market value.

“You know, I just wanna fight, but I wanna get paid fairly,” Taylor told IFL TV as part of an interview that was posted to its YouTube channel Saturday. “You know, so, I’m not gonna fight for buttons. You know, I’m not gonna fight for chocolate buttons. If I’m gonna fight, I know what I’m worth and I know what sort of money should be there about in the fight. You know, and don’t get me wrong, I know when you take a loss, you take a pay cut. That goes without saying. The sport is just like that. But their offer that they first gave me was [not good]. So, I’m not gonna fight for chocolate buttons, that’s for sure.”

Taylor (19-1, 13 KOs), who is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., and Catterall (28-1, 13 KOs), who is promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, were contracted to fight a second time last March 4 at OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.

Their rematch was postponed last January due to Taylor’s foot injury. It was later canceled altogether once the WBO ordered Taylor to make a mandated defense of its junior welterweight title against Lopez.

The left-handed Taylor entered the ring as more than a 2-1 favorite to defeat Lopez in a 12-round main event ESPN televised. The Brooklyn-born, Las Vegas-based Lopez (19-1, 13 KOs) still outboxed him and won a unanimous decision seven months ago.

There was no doubt about that outcome, but Taylor feels he needs to prove his superiority over the 30-year-old Catterall, who beat Taylor on one scorecard – 113-112, 111-114, 112-113 – in their 12-round fight for Taylor’s four titles at OVO Hydro.

“Hopefully we’re close,” Taylor said. “You know, but well, I’ll obviously leave it [in the hands] of my lawyer to settle all the nitty-gritty bits. But all this [talk of] three offers and all this is a lotta nonsense. I had one offer and Top Rank didn’t even come to me with it because it was a crap offer. So, they didn’t even come to me and say, ‘Look, this is what they’ve come with.’ They just said, ‘We’ve had an offer. We’ve rejected it.’ And from me, I went, ‘Well, what was it?’ And then they told me and I was like, ‘Oh well, yeah, fair enough.’ You know what I mean?

“And then so, they’ve went back – they says they came back with a second offer, which essentially was the same offer, but taking away the American [TV] rights, which then meant for me to get to the number that we were looking for and stuff, Top Rank would have to then pay the rest of it. And Top Rank go, ‘Well, we’re not promoting it, so why would we go and put the money in for it and all that kind of stuff?’ So, it was all that kind of nonsense, which I’m not real interested in.”

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