For years, Ekow Essuman was a constant, consistent presence on the British welterweight scene.

After winning the English title back in 2018, the 36-year-old spent more than five years with a belt around his waist and his fights began to take on a sense of inevitability.

Challenger after challenger set out with the best intentions only to have their heart broken by the relentless Essuman.

Known as “The Engine”, nobody could match his ability to accelerate through the gears as he collected the British and Commonwealth belts before a host of international ranking titles.

In November 2023, he finally stalled and was outhustled by the tough, awkward Harry Scarff.

Those who assumed that the years of attrition had taken their toll on Essuman mentally and physically were to be proven wrong.

After eight months on the sidelines, Essuman returned as a more aggressive, more cavalier version of himself.

Last July he picked himself up off the floor to score a thrilling final round stoppage of Owen Cooper - previously unbeaten and twelve years his junior - before following that up by outlasting another undefeated and younger man Ben Vaughan in a brutal 10-round war.

Essuman (21-1, 8 KOs) has rechristened himself as “The Spectre” but is promising to show yet another side to his game when fighting former undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor (19-2, 13 KOs) at Glasgow's SSE Hydro Arena on Saturday night.

"You guys are going to see something special. That's all I can say," Essuman told The Ring.

"I'd like to think you'll see sides of me that you know already, but you'll see other sides too.”

Despite his long unbeaten run, Essuman was never able to position himself for a fight with one of the welterweight division’s major names and his non-stop, high-octane style will have positioned him somewhere near the bottom of the list of potential opponents when the various world champions sought to make a voluntary defence of their title.

Seeing him get beaten, hit, hurt and dropped has suddenly made facing him a more appealing prospect.

As a former undisputed and Ring Magazine champion, it would be insulting to suggest that Taylor’s people looked for vulnerabilities before accepting Essuman as the opponent for their man's welterweight debut but it is fair to say that his new, crowd-pleasing style has made him a much easier sell.

"I was probably all risk and no reward at a certain point whereas you know what they say, you take a defeat and then everyone smells blood in the water and suddenly they want a bit," he said.

"Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I learned a few lessons off that experience [the loss to Scarff], and it's true to form. You can see I've learned something, so I'm doing good."

Since the fight was announced, the normally fiery Taylor has praised Essuman, remembering the time they spent training together as amateurs in the Team GB programme and acknowledging that he faces a tough night.

The 34-year-old Scotsman isn’t the type of character to hand out false praise so it is safe to assume that Essuman earned his respect during the short time they worked together.

Taylor also left his mark on Essuman. Although it would have been impossible to predict the heights that Taylor would go on to reach, his quality was impossible to ignore.

"To be honest, I personally touted him as one of the higher talents on GB whilst I was there so I always had respect for him," he said.

"I was always just shooting from the hip of him, just being really honest and whatnot. We've talked a few times as pros, just about matches we'd had and stuff like that, and the respect was always there. He knows I respect him. I've been training hard for it because I know he's going to pose a hard puzzle to solve but I am going to solve it.

"He’s just like me though. When I respect someone there's extra venom in the ring. I can only expect that from him so it's the same on both sides.”

Taylor could have chosen far easier opponents to make his 147lb bow against and most are expecting Essuman to pose serious questions about just how much desire he has to climb the mountain back to world title contention.

Essuman isn't giving Taylor's mindset a second's thought.

"Yeah, regardless of if he has the answers or not, he will come apart because I'm not going to let anything else happen but that. Respectfully."