Josh Taylor enjoyed a stellar boxing career, becoming undisputed super lightweight champion 

However, injuries took their toll on his body, and he called time on his career after losing to Ekow Essuman, his third defeat in a row, when it was discovered, he had seven tears in his retinal tissue.

It wasn’t the end he had wanted but seldom do boxers walk away on their own terms.

Since then, the 35-year-old has admitted to finding life post boxing to be difficult and has taken time for him to adjust.

“I hadn’t been doing much,” said Taylor. “I’ve been wise with my money I earned. I’ve put it in property and other things that have yield back. I’ve not made any stupid purchases. I’m safe that way.

“It was more boredom and gutted that my life’s purpose was over. For the first couple of months, I was in a bad spot mentally. It was kinda like, ‘What the fuck am I gonna do? I can’t really do anything, I’ve invested my money, but I’m bored in my head.'”

Without the focus of boxing, specifically training for an upcoming fight, he lacked purpose and had found occupying his time an arduous task and led to a troubling pattern.

“The wife’s working, so I found myself from never being at home, to always being at home and on my own every day, all day,” he said. “I ended up going for a drink and getting pissed, I wasn’t going to enjoy myself and get have a couple of drinks and go home. I was going out to get pissed for the sake of it.

“The wife’s coming in from work and I’m sitting in the house pissed or if not I’m in the pub and coming in pissed. It created a little bit of tension between me and her.

“I don’t like using the word depression, but I kinda was. I was in a really dark hole. I never wanted to do anything, I wasn’t really talking to my wife, I wasn’t really engaging with her. I was bored, I’m fed up, my life is over. She’s at work, my mates are at work, my mum and dad are at work. I’m just on my own all the time with nothing to do. I don’t know what to do with myself. I was kind of stuck.”

He knew that going to the gym would likely see him want to return so avoided that which in itself was tough because it meant he didn’t see or engage with many people he knew.

Taylor needed a reset but didn’t know how to go about that.

That wake-up call came when he headed to Belfast last September to work the Five Live radio broadcast for the vacant IBF welterweight title between Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan.

“In the morning, we woke up to the news of Ricky Hatton taking his own life with his depression,” he lamented. “It was like a sobering shake up, in the most horrible way possible because I was a massive fan of Ricky Hatton, he was one of my hero’s.

“To wake up to that and losing his battle, what I was starting to go through. I thought, ‘Right, maybe I need to give myself a shake. Maybe go and see a psychologist.’

“I went home and had a couple of personalized bottles of whiskey people had sent to me, every bit of drink I chucked straight out. I turned my phone off for a number of weeks and tried to focus on my mental wellbeing, going for walks and maybe then start getting back in the gym and helping out with the kids in my old amateur gym. I kind of done that for a while to get myself better.”

Thankfully, Taylor is now in a much better place and taking life one step at a time.

“I’ve found a little bit of peace,” he said. “There’s still times I do get a little bit emotional and I think, ‘Maybe I’ll get fit and go one more.’ But I think, ‘No, you’re playing with your health.’

“It’s taken time and a couple of months to adjust. As the saying goes, ‘Times a great healer.’ The more time that passes by the more I’m at ease with.”

“I don’t think that’s ever going to leave but I’m a bit more at peace. I’m like, ‘I’m at the end of my fighting days.’ I’m not happy about it but I’m at peace.”