{"id":392886,"date":"2026-01-27T09:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/392886\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:36:20","slug":"east-lothian-boxing-legend-josh-taylor-opens-up-on-being-in-dark-place-post-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/392886\/","title":{"rendered":"East Lothian boxing legend Josh Taylor opens up on ‘being in dark place’ post-retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tartan Tornado, whose world-conquering career came to an abrupt halt in July on medical advice, told how he’d turn to drink to cope.\"Josh<\/p>\n

Josh Taylor(Image: )<\/p>\n

East Lothian boxing legend Josh Taylor has opened up about how his forced retirement from the sport last year left him in a “dark place”.<\/p>\n

Josh, 35, whose world-conquering career came to an abrupt halt in July over a recurring eye injury, spoke movingly about feeling like his \u201clife\u2019s purpose was over\u201d and how he turned to drink as a crutch.<\/p>\n

It comes weeks after we reported the former prizefighter, from Prestonpans, was allegedly involved in a pub brawl in East Lothian on Hogmanay<\/a>. Josh said: \u201cI was in a bad place mentally when I first retired. I don\u2019t like using the word depression, but I was in a really bad, dark place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like falling off the edge of a cliff. All of a sudden, just being on my own with nothing to do, everyone else at work, and I felt like my life\u2019s purpose was over and done with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough time mentally trying to adjust\u2026 when you\u2019re on your own, it\u2019s very hard to deal with. And a lot of the time for me, for a couple of months beforehand, I was trying to deal with it by having a drink and going out, having a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then as the saying goes, what goes up must come down. Once you sober up and after you\u2019ve had the laugh, you\u2019re left feeling the same, maybe even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was a struggle opening up to people close to him about his mental health, reports the Record<\/a>. Josh added: \u201cI just held it in. I just felt like I was maybe moaning to people or getting on at people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s just a manly thing or a sort of bravado sort of thing with guys not feeling how to share their problems. They maybe wait until they\u2019ve had a drink or two and then it all comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!<\/p>\n

Dubbed the Tartan Tornado, the Scot became an undisputed world champion after unifying the light welterweight division with a series of stunning wins. The homegrown superstar finished his career with 19 wins and three losses, with 13 wins by knockout.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the BBC\u2019s Life After Boxing podcast, Josh said the shocking death of fellow boxer Ricky Hatton, aged 46, in September helped jolt him back to life. Josh said: \u201cIt was a big shock for me because Ricky was a childhood hero and I really looked up to him.<\/p>\n

“And for that to happen to one of my heroes was a really sobering moment. I actually phoned my dad because I hadn\u2019t really been speaking to my dad since I retired.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I was struggling and that kind of sobered me up a little bit. I said, \u2018Right, I\u2019m going to have to grab the bull by the horns a little bit and talk about what I\u2019m going through mentally’.\u201d<\/p>\n

Join Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here<\/a> and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tartan Tornado, whose world-conquering career came to an abrupt halt in July on medical advice, told how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,14496,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-392886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-josh-taylor","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}