Few fighters can have been as near to, yet so far from winning a British title as Manchester’s Liam Taylor.

In November 2019, Taylor made a solid start to his British and Commonwealth welterweight title fight with Chris Jenkins.

Taylor dropped the champion in the second round before an accidental clash of heads opened a large cut over the Welshman’s eye with just four seconds remaining in the fourth round.

The fight was immediately stopped and declared a technical draw.

Had the ringside doctors allowed Jenkins to finish the round, the fight would have gone to the scorecards and Taylor’s career would have taken a different path.

Rather than getting himself back to the gym for an ordered rematch, Taylor found himself in no man's land.

More than five years later, Taylor (28-2-1,1 4 KOs) finally gets a second shot at the British title and will challenge welterweight champion, Conah Walker (15-3-1, 6 KOs), in Birmingham on Saturday.

Taylor, 34, still thinks about how close he came to winning the title but is determined to put things right this weekend.

“To be honest, it's probably every time I get a decent fight,” Taylor told The Ring.

“I just think, 'What would my career have been like if I would have won the fight then?' Things are meant to happen for a reason and here we are five years on. I’m a better fighter for it.”

For a long time, Taylor thought his shot would come against Harry Scarff but, in January, Walker scored a dramatic come-from-behind stoppage of the awkward Scarff to claim the title.

Taylor had committed to a final assault on the division and had begun to think about how to beat Scarff before Walker changed those plans. He has sparred the 30-year-old in the past and, in March, he boxed for the first time in over a year and shed the rust with a six-round win over Darren Stewart.

Taylor believes that everything has fallen into place at the right time.

“I think from December I got back in the gym. I thought I'd have one more good go at it. January was really hard. It was difficult to physically get back in shape and mentally switch on again,” he said.

“I got the fight in March and, to be honest, I was probably at 60% but I knew in the back of my mind that if I stayed in the gym and stayed consistent, I'd keep improving and I'd get physically strong again.

“The genuine truth is that I've never ever felt as good as I do now. Physically, mentally, and even my boxing. It's a lot better and I’m probably the best I've ever been, I'm not just saying that.

“Obviously though, you can do it in the gym but it all comes down to fight night and I've not been very active. I feel like the fight in March really got my eye back in and I think I'm going to be the best I've ever been come fight night.”

Apart from a pair of fights with former British junior welterweight champion, Tyrone Nurse, Taylor was relatively inexperienced when he boxed Jenkins.

Since then, he has continued to work alongside Steve Maylett at The Finest Gym in Manchester and is certain that he is in a far better position to win the title this time around.

In 2021 he lost a two-round European title shootout to the dangerous David Avanesyan but has beaten solid British operators Darren Tetley and Martin Harkin and regularly sparred world-level fighters. Importantly, he has also seen and felt what it is like to prepare for and win a big fight.

“I'd say I’ve got more composure in the situations where you need to box or you need to fight. I feel like I was a bit too gung-ho in the Jenkins fight. I had him hurt and I just wanted to get him out there then,” he said.

“Now I'm more relaxed. I know when to work, when to move, when to hold. I'm a more all-around fighter from it.

“I beat Darren Tetley after that — he was unbeaten at the time — and I got the Avanesyan fight after that. Those fights improved me.

“Even the loss to Avanesyan improved me to the fact where I knew when to hold back and to box off because I can box, it’s knowing when to do it.”

Unable to rely on boxing to provide him with a living, Taylor got on with life outside the ring, but knowing that his chance would eventually arrive he always stayed active enough to hold his position and remain close to the top of the domestic rankings.

Rather than acting as a distraction, Taylor’s new responsibilities have provided him with some perspective and made him realise just how much it will mean for him to accomplish his lifelong dream.

“There's a lot more to your life than boxing but this is the pinnacle of my career. This is why I turned professional so many years ago. I turned professional when I was 20. I could have stayed amateur but I wanted to win the British title,” he said.

“Even then when I was 20, I looked at it and thought, 'I’m going to win that in the next two years'. Nearly 14 years on, I’m going again.

“My life's changed drastically, especially over the past 12 months. I got married and got a new home. Our baby’s on the way in October. There's a lot to look forward to outside of boxing but this has been my life since I was nine years old.

“That British title — the Lonsdale belt — is something that I've always dreamt of winning and the drive for that is real.”