JOSH TAYLOR has claimed that he once dropped Yordenis Ugas in sparring.
Ugas, 35, recently stunned the boxing world when he defeated the legendary Manny Pacquiao.
Light welterweight king Taylor, 30, isn’t intimidated by Ugas, however, and believes that he can move up a division and claim the Cuban’s belt.
The Scot told Sky Sports: “Yes. I believe in my own ability. I have goals and targets and things I want to reach.
“My longer-term goal is to become a two-weight world champion by winning a belt at welterweight. I can beat these guys.
“Ugas, we sparred in Vegas, and it went well. That’s all I’ll say. It went very, very well. I dropped him!
“If that fight came around? I’ve got more experience, I’ve been in big fights.
“This was at a time before I’d fought for titles. Now I’ve been in hard fights, big fights, for titles.
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“I can beat these guys, I really do believe in my ability.”
Ugas responded furiously on Twitter, labelling Taylor a ‘liar and a cheater’ and a ‘man without any kind of class’.
Before a fight between the two can emerge, Taylor must take care of light welterweight challenger Jack Catterall on December 18.
On his next opponent, Taylor added: “He is a very tough test. He’s 26-0, he has beaten everybody in front of him.
“There have been no questions asked. We haven’t seen the best of Catterall yet.
“I’ve seen a few of his performances and they haven’t been very impressive.
“That is because he hasn’t the opponents to really fire him up. He will be fired up for this one.”
