Round-by-Round: Josh Taylor vs. Jack Catterall | Sky Sports - 26 February 2022

[THEBUTCH]

I saw the clean shots landed by Taylor, just less than Catterall landed. I saw the continued holding by Catterall which was nothing short of a disgrace.

When Catterall reached a level (several fights ago)he changed his style to stink the place out if he couldn't control a fight without getting hurt.

In his challenge for the undisputed world title he took it the nth degree. This is the measure of the man. He's chalk and cheese compared to Taylor. I can block out how Josh was behaving before the fight...18 times out of 19 he puts on a show....his one poor performance coincides when boxing a fighter who's made a habit of being in really shit fights.

[Frostieballs]

I actually thought Taylor was holding at least as much. Kept headlocking!

[margaret thatcher]

ya, something repeated every round would be catteral crouched in a defensive posture, taylor missing with a shot over the top, then falling onto catt and headlocking him.

it was very mutual, i dont buy this stuff that cat was taking it way beyond. and when they did freely exchange shots it wasn't taylor with the advantage either.....

[mickey1975]

I saw the clean shots landed by Taylor, just less than Catterall landed. I saw the continued holding by Catterall which was nothing short of a disgrace.

When Catterall reached a level (several fights ago)he changed his style to stink the place out if he couldn't control a fight without getting hurt.

In his challenge for the undisputed world title he took it the nth degree. This is the measure of the man. He's chalk and cheese compared to Taylor. I can block out how Josh was behaving before the fight...18 times out of 19 he puts on a show....his one poor performance coincides when boxing a fighter who's made a habit of being in really shit fights.

So are you the third neutral person in the world who thought Taylor won?

[Ruthless-RKO]

World Boxing Council say Jack Catterall ‘merits a rematch’ with Josh Taylor

According to information relayed about their fight by the World Boxing Council, Jack Catterall deserves a rematch with Josh Taylor.

As usual, the WBC release their report of the fight as a title fight under their sanctioning rules. Despite stating it was mere ‘a close fight’, the information indicated that Catterall should get another opportunity.

Anyone witnessing the fight in Glasgow could see that Catterall won the contest with no questions asked. However, there are continued frustrations at the lack of action by all four sanctioning bodies.

The WBC is the first to acknowledge a second helping after the WBA failed to mention any controversy.

“Everything was ready for Taylor in his heather purple tartan to shine in front of his fans, and as usually happens in these cases, he arrived very confidently thinking that it would be plain sailing. It wasn’t,” said the WBC report.

“It was Jack who landed more often with crisper punches, and by the third round, Josh’s nose was bleeding."

“In the fourth, Josh was using his extra height and reach effectively. Quite a lot of clinching. But then Jack caught him a sinking right to the midriff and opened up with both hands."

“Just before the eighth round, Referee Marcus McDonnell, who’d previously warned them about some rough stuff, gave both a stern talking to at that moment. Jack, who was noticeably tiring, suddenly landed a right uppercut and bigger left hook, dropping Josh for the first time in his career. Both then risked."

“A ragged final round. Both opened up, and a neat left uppercut landed from Jack. A crunching left to the body from Josh and then clinching."

Taylor earned the split decision victory with 113-112 for Catterall, 114-111, and 113-112 for Taylor.

“Josh finished the fight stronger and more energetic than Jack, but it was a titanic tear up and an even tougher test for Josh than Regis Prograis.”

WORLD BOXING COUNCIL REMATCH

On the rematch, they added: “Josh says a rematch isn’t necessary. Jack’s performance merits it! He fought like a Lancashire Fusilier.”

The WBC acting on what looks to be a throwaway statement will remain up in the air until a more concrete follow-up.

However, the way it’s panned out, that looks increasingly unlikely for Catterall unless his team pushes a protest.

[maverick23]

Smith has done an interview with the Telegraph. Frustratingly he went straight on the defensive (a close scrappy fight, lots of close rounds, he had Catterall pipping it).

This doesn’t help his cause as no one else thought it was a close fight. Catterall wasn’t dominating but he was winning rounds fairly clearly.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Smith has done an interview with the Telegraph. Frustratingly he went straight on the defensive (a close scrappy fight, lots of close rounds, he had Catterall pipping it).

This doesn’t help his cause as no one else thought it was a close fight. Catterall wasn’t dominating but he was winning rounds fairly clearly.

Yeh, he may as well just keep his mouth shut.

It was a scrapy fight, but many of the rounds Catterall won, (1-7) where clear winning rounds, despite the scrappy fight.

[margaret thatcher]

round doesnt have to be a beatdown to be clear. a guy can clearly get the better of a round even if it was fairly uneventful. so many of these rounds every notable shot was from catteral and he was the one landing more. those rounds have to go to cat even if rounds were on the quieter/slower side

[Ruthless-RKO]

‘Scotland Screwjob’ refunds given over ‘battered Mars bar’ Josh Taylor

Bookmakers at Paddy Power offered a refund to punters who backed Jack Catterall to beat Josh Taylor on Saturday night.

The Irish odds crunchers seemed just as disgusted as the vast majority who witnessed Catterall taking Taylor’s belts in Glasgow.

Out-punching Taylor in eleven of the twelve rounds and doubling the blows landing output, Catterall got mugged.

Paddy Power did what it felt was right by giving customers their money back.

“Light Welterweight champion of the World Josh Taylor got an incredibly controversial hometown split decision win over Jack Catterall on Saturday night.

“Twitter went absolutely berserk about the Scotland Screwjob,” said the bookie.

“And when shady shenanigans go down, Paddy just has to step in and do something.

“We can’t talk sense into the scorers for the bout. But we can issue a Justice Refund on Catterall to win selections in the Match Betting market.

“And with over 3,000 plucky punters cursing the ringside adjudicators when Josh Taylor got given the nod on a split decision, that’s exactly what we did.”



JOSH TAYLOR BATTERED MARS BAR

They added that the judges might need to make an appointment to get their eyes tested.

“We might even fork out for a trip to Specsavers for the three visually-impaired fight-watchers. It follows the call to award each fighter a win on a 113-112 score, with the decisive view going 114-111 in favor of the belt-holder Taylor.

“This is despite Catterall battering him like a Mars bar in Govan for much of the fight. Cue total apoplexy on social media.”

So far, the campaign for Jack Catterall to get a second opportunity looks set to fall on deaf ears. Josh Taylor is already talking about moving up.

Should he do so, WBN believes the four sanctioning bodies should come together in an unprecedented way to give Catterall a shot at the vacant undisputed titles.

[margaret thatcher]

so far the rationalization script seems to be

'i had cat winning BUT (insert excuse below)"

-cat coasted at the end.....you gotta take it from the champ, etc (be sure not to mention the first 8 rounds)
-messy, ugly, scrappy fight
-rounds didnt have a lot of action
-cat's style is boring
-cat held/fouled....which prevented taylor from getting to him (even though when they exchanged josh got dropped)

[Ruthless-RKO]

so far the rationalization script seems to be

'i had cat winning BUT (insert excuse below)"

-cat coasted at the end.....you gotta take it from the champ, etc (be sure not to mention the first 8 rounds)
-messy, ugly, scrappy fight
-rounds didnt have a lot of action
-cat's style is boring
-cat held/fouled....which prevented taylor from getting to him (even though when they exchanged josh got dropped)

Yeh, bang on Mags.. You've hit it on the head.

No one mentions first 7-8 rounds.. He surely took the belt off him those rounds.. But oh wait, only the championship rounds matter..

I don't think Catterall even 'coasted' them last few rounds, was still competitive and he did look tired.. Why was he tired? Cus he spent the first 7-8 rounds battering Taylor.

I usually do find Catt's style boring, but he was masterful in defence, but he certainly added a lot of offence. Twice as much as JT.

[margaret thatcher]

ya i have always found cat to be a boring fighter with a boring career.........but he was excellent on saturday. i thought he pretty much shut down a p4p level fighter

[Ruthless-RKO]

Got a Sky Sports notification..

BBBofC to investigate scoring..

But Smith has already gone on defence on the Telegraph apparently.

[dookus]

Got a Sky Sports notification..

BBBofC to investigate scoring..

But Smith has already gone on defence on the Telegraph apparently.

Oh a BBBC investigation, no doubt that will clear everything up, like all the previous ones.

fornicate this closed shop, it's time to either start over or - against everything I would usually say - have a statutory body manage pro boxing in Britain. There is no real accountability and it's hurting the sport in this country.

[Frostieballs]

I’ll save us the bother of waiting for the Board investigation. Here you go:

‘Following media outrage, we have conducted an extensive investigation into the scoring of the Josh Taylor - Jack Catterall contest for the undisputed light welterweight world championship.

‘After calling the judges in to explain their scorecards, we have found no irregularities and stand by their decisions.

‘Our judges are highly trained and experienced and interpreted the fight within the scope of the rules.

‘We remind everyone that boxing is extremely subjective and can be seen very differently according to a number of factors.’

[JamesPhilips]

I noticed his eyes too.

[Wee Tommy]

I noticed his eyes too.

Good spot.

It’s also very difficult to score a fight while your in there.

I just hope he changes his mind after a week of rest and gives Cat a chance at all the belts. With the publicity it’s had the fight will be a sell out.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Timothy Bradley Jr: Why the scorecards were wrong in Taylor-Catterall

The result of Saturday's undisputed junior welterweight championship fight between champion Josh Taylor and challenger Jack Catterall hasn't sat well with me. The challenger did everything he was supposed to do to win, but the judges handed Taylor a split-decision victory.

I watched the fight a second time on Sunday morning (Watch replay on ESPN+), and then a third time after that just to make sure I wasn't missing something. Minute after minute the trend was clear -- this was Catterall's fight. He had a plan and executed it brilliantly.

There were some close rounds early. I thought Catterall won the first round clearly and all three of the judges were on the same page. But all three judges gave the next two rounds to Taylor, while Catterall was controlling the distance, landing the cleaner, more effective punches and using his jab. The trend continued: Catterall outboxed Taylor, but Taylor picked up the rounds on the scorecards.

The judges didn't answer the simplest question, and really the only question that they must answer after every round: Who won the round? Who landed the more effective punches? That's how we need to judge a fight. A lot of times fighters get too much credit for moving forward regardless of what they're doing, while fighters who fight off their back foot and actually box don't get credit for that. That was clearly the case in this fight.

Aggression without effectiveness doesn't mean much. Effective aggression is when you're moving forward and actually impact the other fighter to the extent that you're able to dominate. At no point in this fight was Taylor able to dominate or control the action. Every time Taylor would get Catterall to the ropes, he'd maybe land one shot and then Catterall would tie up and not allow the work -- which was a great game plan.

It's a common assumption in the sport that when it's a close round, judges just default and give it to the champion. This can't be the case. There was not one moment during the fight where Taylor actually hurt Catterall. Not only did Catterall outbox Taylor in his hometown, but Catterall hurt Taylor several times during the course of the fight, and he dropped him in Round 8. Even on the back end of the fight, when Catterall was backing up, Taylor wasn't doing much work, and Catterall was still landing effective, clean punches when Taylor was moving forward.

Catterall won this fight by the eye test and by the numbers. Looking at the fight as a whole, minute by minute in each round, you will see who lands the cleaner, more effective punches. The CompuBox stats tell the same story: Catterall landed the most punches, the most jabs and the most power punches. The only category Catterall didn't have the edge in was body shots, because Taylor was digging into the body -- and he did have some success in doing so, but it simply wasn't enough.

There was only one left hand that Taylor landed that was flush, and that happened in the last round. Taylor finally moved his head off to the side, tried his pull counter and he landed. It was effective. It was great, but it happened only once. The rest of the shots were down to the body, and then an occasional right hook.

For the most part, with the jabs from the outside, Taylor was getting beat to the punch. On the inside, Taylor couldn't work because he was getting tied up.

Taylor's a great inside fighter, but Catterall solved him and just laid out the blueprint on how to neutralize him for all his future opponents. Taylor couldn't fight inside because Catterall took away his strength. That's what it's all about in boxing -- beyond your own skills and abilities -- taking away the other fighter's strength. If a boxer is able to do that, and capitalize on his opponent's mistakes, he is going to win a lot of rounds.

Taylor didn't jab enough. He didn't set up his attack enough, and he walked in with one idea on his mind -- he thought he was going to come in and knock out Catterall. He had a rude awakening because Catterall had a plan of his own. And it was a better one.

The third man in the ring also made an impact on Saturday. Referee Marcus McDonnell became an active participant in this fight, in all the wrong ways. Sometimes in non-championship fights in England, with Queensbury rules, the referee is allowed to judge a fight. That wasn't the case for this championship bout, but I felt something of that mentality on Saturday.

There's a thin line with a referee being active and keeping a fight out of hand, and then overstepping his role. When two guys are fighting for their livelihoods, and the stakes are as high as they are in a championship fight, nobody wants a referee taking points unless he has no choice. If something's completely deliberate, completely dirty, sometimes you don't have a choice.

But both fighters were roughhousing one another, taking it up to that line while fighting for the undisputed championship of the world. And in both instances where McDonnell took a point -- one for each fighter -- nothing was even close to going over that line.

In fights like these there's going to be some wrestling, some holding. There's going to be some roughhouse tactics -- that's part of a fight. But instead of the referee getting involved by taking points, he needed to get control of the ring. Be in the fighters' ears vocally. Be forceful, but reasonable. Referees who are too hands on and involved in a fight have to understand that it's not about them. It's about the two fighters. Why jeopardize a great fight to shine the spotlight on yourself -- and in a negative way, too?

Before every fight, analysts, judges, referees and fans all have preconceived notions of how we think a fight is going to play out. We debate who is going to win, how they will do it and of course how we'll react to the result. Sometimes those prefight feelings can influence fans and even judges in how they perceive what they're actually watching.

Fights should be judged exclusively on what happens inside the ring. Before every championship fight, the champion walks out with the belts, he gets into the ring with the belts, but when the bell rings, he's no longer a champion. While the belts sit with the commission outside the ring and the fight is on, there isn't a champion.

I'll admit I also dropped the ball in the lead-up to this fight. I know I mentioned the left hand of Catterall in my article last week, and I said it could be effective, but I missed one of Taylor's key vulnerable spots. I went back and I watched Taylor's fight against Regis Prograis, and Prograis was having his best moments when he was fighting off the back foot and luring in Taylor -- and that's exactly how Catterall had all of his success. He lured Taylor in, let him make mistakes, beat him with the jab and then made Taylor pay with big, clean shots over the top.

Catterall deserves a lot of credit. This result has nothing to do with Taylor not showing up ready, or being drawn out because of his weight cut. This was Catterall at his best, executing an extremely effective game plan.

[Controversial]

Quite telling that Josh Taylor hasn't put anything on social media since the fight

[Ruthless-RKO]

JT has spoken

[Dioufy]

Even if Taylor stays at light welter, and even if the WBO order a rematch there’s no way the other 3 organisations accept that.
This was Catteral’s only chance to fight for all 4 belts and tbh, he got fooked over massively.
Hope his next fight will be for a vacant WBO belt against some nobody who is somehow ranked.
Then gets the chance to unify.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Even if Taylor stays at light welter, and even if the WBO order a rematch there’s no way the other 3 organisations accept that.
This was Catteral’s only chance to fight for all 4 belts and tbh, he got fooked over massively.
Hope his next fight will be for a vacant WBO belt against some nobody who is somehow ranked.
Then gets the chance to unify.

WBC have said Catt deserves another shot.

[Dioufy]

Even if Taylor stays at light welter, and even if the WBO order a rematch there’s no way the other 3 organisations accept that.
This was Catteral’s only chance to fight for all 4 belts and tbh, he got fooked over massively.
Hope his next fight will be for a vacant WBO belt against some nobody who is somehow ranked.
Then gets the chance to unify.

WBC have said Catt deserves another shot.

He was WBO mandatory. WBC have Catteral ranked as their number 9 so highly unlikely they’ll order anything and usurp the huge names ahead of him.
Then the IBF will want their next in line having a go.
It’s a mess and no way Jack ever fights for 4 belts again.

[forcefraser]

I saw an interview with Josh recently where he said he makes 140 easily and could fight at this weight his whole career if he wanted to.

[olij999]

Odd that the WBC see the need to give a narrative report of the fight - they are a sanctioning body, not reporters. "Sinking right", "crunching left" indeed. Their role is to state whether Catterall gets a rematch or not, and by when.

Great spot by Tris Dixon re the pupils. Hope Taylor gets it checked immediately.

And as I listened on the radio, could I offer my favourite Ronism, which I think was in round two - "one-punch combination". I love his commentary.