Jack Catterall (28-1, 13 KOs) looked outstanding on Saturday night, outboxing Jorge Linares (47-9, 29 KOs), winning a twelve round unanimous decision in a boxing clinic in a light welterweight contest at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England.
The 38-year-old Linares tried his best, but he lacked the size & the chin to win against the younger and bigger 30-year-old Catterall. Linares looked like an older fighter that could no longer pull the trigger.
The judges’ scores were 117-111, 116-112, and 116-112.
Boxing247 will give updates on tonight’s action on the Linares-Catterall card below. The event begins at 2:00 p.m. ET live on DAZN.
– Unbeaten super bantamweight Peter McGrail (8-0, 5 KOs) used steady pressure to grind out a ten round unanimous decision over Fran Mendoza (17-1, 7 KOs) in a competitive fight.
The southpaw McGrail was getting caught frequently in the early going by the Colombian Mendoza, but as the fight wore on, he took charge of the contest. The judges’ scores were 99-91, 99-91, and 97-93.
Mendoza looked uncomfortable with the nonstop pressure that McGrail was putting on him, and by the eighth round, he clearly wanted no part of mixing it up with him.
McGrail was mixing his shots off beautifully, making it impossible for Mendoza to predict where they came from. If McGrail had a little more power, he would have stopped Mendoza because he was hitting with really lovely shots.
– Bantamweight Jack Turner (3-0, 3 KOs) put on an impressive punching display, overwhelming Adam Yahaya (23-11-2, 12 KOs) with a rain of blistering shots to the head & body that put him down for a first round knockout.
The time of the stoppage by referee Mark Lyson was at 2:27 of round one. Turner made no bones about what his game plan was as jumped on the 33-year-old Yahaya from the bell, hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink. It was like watching another Aaron Pryor with how Turner threw nonstop shots.
– Reece Belloti (17-5, 14 KOs) used unrelenting pressure & high volume punching to wear down and stop Aqib Fiaz (12-1, 1 KOs) in the eighth round of a scheduled twelve round super featherweight contest. The fight was halted at 3:00 of round eight.
Fiaz’s corner threw in the towel in the eighth round shortly after he’d been knocked down by Belloti. The fight was stopped after the round ended.
Bellot knocked Fiaz down with a left hand in the eighth, and unloaded on him with a storm of punches after he got back up. It looked like Fiaz could have made it out of the round, but he’d been getting battered the entire fight, so it made sense for his corner to have the bout halted.
– In an entertaining war, light welterweight Khaleel Majid (12-0, 4 KOs) overwhelmed Tom Farrell (21-8, 5 KOs) with his body attack, knocking him down three times en route to scoring a sixth round KO.
Farrell was down twice from hard body shots in the sixth and once in the fifth. Referee Steve Gray waived it off at 2:33 in the sixth round after Majid dropped the 33-year-old Farrell with a left to the body.
Jack Catterall (27-1, 13 KO) faces the always dangerous former three-division world champion Jorge Linares (47-8, 29 KOs) in what should be an entertaining light welterweight clash at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Linares, 38, will be the visiting fighter and needs to raise his game to keep from losing his fourth consecutive fight.
There’s a lot riding on the line for both fighters, as they want to fight the winner of the December 9th fight between WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis & Devin Haney.
Catterall (27-1, 13 KOs) came up short last year when he fought for a world title against four-belt 140-lb champion Josh Taylor. He hopes to get a rematch with Taylor or fight the Prograis-Haney winner next if he’s victorious against the 38-year-old Linares tonight.
Linares’ career is on the brink of the scrap heap after losing his last three fights, and he cannot afford to take another loss tonight. Catterall has been dumped on by the boxing world for choosing to fight Linares rather than a younger fighter like Gary Antuanne Russell.
Even more troubling is why Linares was selected from the 135-lb division for Catterall instead of someone from the 140-lb weight class.
“Every fight for me is do or die. I’m treating this fight like a world title fight in my eyes. It’s a last-chance saloon for Linares. He’s 38-years-old and has had his time in the sun. Now, it’s my time,” said Jack Catterall to Matchoom Boxing about his fight tonight against Jorge Linares.
“I’m close to retiring, very close. So this fight is very important for me because I want to finish my career happy.”
“I truly believe he’ll give us a great performance. I don’t know if it’ll be good enough to beat Jack Catterall, but he’s not the fighter he once was,” said Eddie Hearn to Lightweight Boxing about Linares.
“When he puts everything into a training camp, and goes back to [trainer Ismael] Salas and says, ‘This is it, this is like my last hoorah,’ trust me, he’s coming,” Hearn continued about Linares.
“Jack, I wouldn’t be surprised after five or six rounds; you’re saying this is a close fight. Jack’s not a massive puncher, but he certainly punches hard enough to get his respect.
“I don’t think Jorge’s chin is as good as it used to be, but I don’t think he’ll be looking at Jack, thinking, ‘I’m not in with Teofimo’ in terms of punch power and stuff like that.
“I think this is a really good fight. Going back to the need for excitement, You got Sam Jones and those guys on me all the time. ‘If he wins this fight, he’s got to fight Haney-Prograis winner; he’s got to fight Josh Taylor.’ If you give me a performance, then you’ve got a great chance.
“If you squeeze by or give me a fight that’s not exciting, don’t expect the broadcaster and the fans to start screaming to see it again. This is like all the pressure that I’m putting myself to be more, I’m putting it on fighters and especially the prospects.
“Everybody is scrapping for slots, everybody is scrapping for attention, and everybody is scrapping for a contract. So when you’re at a level where the danger doesn’t exist, you go in there and stick it on them and get them out of there.
“Take it easy, go through the gears, but this is not just about cruising to a points victory. So, Jack has got to perform, and Jack has got to look good,” said Hearn about Catterall.