BY JOHN EVANS
February 26, 2024
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall completed their press tour and retreated to their gyms to prepare for their eagerly awaited rematch on April 27.
Before they did so, the most surprising detail to emerge this week was perhaps Taylor’s insistence that they fight at 140lbs.
The 33-year-old has been a super lightweight for his entire career, and it has clearly got tougher for him to shrink his 5ft 10ins frame down to 140lbs. The former undisputed champion hasn’t been shy about his ambitions to move up to welterweight, and cited making weight as one of the major factors behind his performance in the first fight with Catterall, in February 2022. He regardless seems determined to do things properly, and to leave no room for discussion this time around.
Taylor escaped from the first fight with a razor-tight split decision victory but it didn’t take him long to realise that he had got things badly wrong.
“Oh, from the very first bell; I was f***** from the weigh-in,” Taylor said. “I left it far too long to make the weight. I left it way late. I came in chubby, round and fat and just crashed the weight off and f***** myself. I knew I was f***** from the very first bell. The whole fight I was knackered.”
Taylor has been in with some outstanding competition during his career. The likes of Viktor Postol, Ivan Baranchyk, Regis Prograis, Jose Ramirez and Teofimo Lopez all gave Taylor tough nights, although only Lopez managed to beat him. Despite the fact that many observers had him losing to Catterall, Taylor doesn’t put his greatest rival in the same bracket as his other toughest opponents.
He respects Catterall’s ability to box to a plan but believes that their fight was only close because of Catterall’s tactics and the drastic weight loss that prevented him from accelerating through the gears.
“It was mostly me,” Taylor said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not stupid. He had a good game plan in terms of just trying to steal the fight rather than going out and f****** taking it from me. He tried to steal it and nick it. Rather than being competitive and fighting, it was very negative. From the very first it was holding straight away; rugby tackling at times. It was mad.
“It worked to a certain extent but it was his downfall as well. The judges obviously didn’t like it.
Especially when you’re fighting for all the titles you’ve got to go in there and make sure you win a fight, not steal it.
“Look, it was partly me and partly him. We both made it quite a crap fight. I was s***e and he wasn’t great either. You need a dance partner to have a good fight with and we were both s*** that night.”
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