In February 2022, Josh Taylor won a 12-round split decision over Jack Catterall in Glasgow in defense of the undisputed super lightweight championship. The result was roundly disputed, but a rematch to settle the issue has never materialized.
Taylor has since moved up in weight, while Catterall has remained at 140 pounds in the hope of securing another title shot. The Englishman looks to continue his quest when he faces former three-weight world champion Jorge Linares on October 21, live on DAZN.
Catterall dropped Taylor in the eighth round and appeared to control the majority of the contest. Per CompuBox, Taylor averaged 6.1 landed shots per round to 10 from Catterall. Taylor landed 73 of 306 total shots (23.9%), while Catterall landed 120 of 525 (22.9%). The champion landed double-digit shots twice, while Catterall landed them in all but six rounds.
WATCH: Jack Catterall vs. Jorge Linares, exclusively live on DAZN
“You know what hurts the most, it wasn’t for me. I done all of this for my family, my team, my town, and country,” Catterall said on social media via The Independent. “My baby girl and missus, our future. Today, I should of been waking up with all of the belts. 15 months out the ring, they all wrote me off. F—– me in every way possible for over two years, finally got the fight. Sacrificed everything to fight one of the top p4p ranked fighters, gave him a lesson. For what. Boxing, shame on you. Judges (middle finger). Dreams stolen.”
Taylor vacated three of his titles and had to pull out of the Catterall rematch after suffering an injury. The Scotsman returned in June 2023, losing the WBO and Ring super lightweight titles to Teofimo Lopez in New York. The plan for Taylor now is to make his welterweight debut in 2024.
Will Josh Taylor fight Josh Catterall in a rematch?
While expected to move up in weight, Taylor wants to quiet the naysayers who thought Catterall beat him.
“We’ll see what options are there and what fights I get offered whether at 140 or 147lbs,” Taylor told The Daily Record. “The Catterall fight will be getting revisited again, hopefully, sooner rather than later. I want it again, just to shut most people up. That will definitely happen again before I retire, that’s for sure. If I stay at 140, then my next fight isn’t going to be a championship fight, so it won’t be championship weight anyway.”
MORE: Who has Jorge Linares beaten in his career?
Before a rematch, Catterall must get past Linares, who is on a three-fight losing streak. Per Bet MGM, Catterall is the -800 favorite, while Linares is the +450 underdog.
Current champions at super lightweight who appear to be busy the next few months are Lopez, Rolando Romero, Regis Prograis (facing Devin Haney), and Subriel Matias. Catterall wants gold, but Eddie Hearn likes the idea of a Taylor rematch.
“The plan for Jack is to get him in position to fight for a world title,” Hearn told iFL TV via Boxing Scene. “However, we also appreciate that the fight with Josh Taylor is a huge fight. Josh is obviously not our fighter, but from reading between the lines, he wants to move up in weight. I think he would be happy to fight Jack at a catchweight. I’ve spoken to Carl Moretti at Top Rank about that fight, they’re definitely willing to entertain it. We need to provide them with some numbers and an offer to make that fight happen in January or February… I would like to make that fight. I think it’s a huge fight, it’s a great fight, but he has to deal with Linares first. If there’s no world title, the next best thing for Jack Catterall is Josh Taylor, and we’ll do everything we can to make that.”