WORLD champion boxer Josh Taylor has said he feels “ashamed” of his “stupid actions” after admitting racially abusing a bouncer in Edinburgh.
The 28-year-old Scot was fined £350 after pleading guilty at the city’s sheriff court to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards the doorman at the Shanghai nightclub in George Street in the early hours of Sunday.
His not-guilty plea to a charge of possessing cocaine was accepted by the Crown.
READ MORE: Josh Taylor hailed as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters on the planet
Taylor, of Prestonpans, East Lothian, who became the unified world champion in the super-lightweight division with a majority decision win over Regis Prograis in October, apologised following the court hearing on Wednesday.
He tweeted: “Whilst out celebrating with friends on Saturday in Edinburgh I made some stupid comments and poor decisions resulting in legal charges.
“I hold my hands up for making remarks which caused offence and I was rightfully found guilty of. I’m ashamed about the whole incident.
“The other charge, I have been rightfully found not guilty of. I’m regularly tested by all the relevant authorities and could be at any time regardless of when I’m fighting. I would never risk my career and reputation with drugs.”
He added: “I wholeheartedly apologise for my stupid actions. It has been a roller coaster of a year for me, becoming unified world champion and on this occasion I’ve taken it too far.
READ MORE: Josh Taylor - 'I’ve not been able to grieve properly ... so I used it as motivation'
“I can only apologise, not only to those whom I offended, but to my family and friends for the upset I’ve caused.
“There’s no excuse for the comments and the disturbance.
“I’m going to take some time off over Christmas to reflect on my actions and ensure it never happens again.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here