Fight fans witnessed an outright robbery last night in Glasgow, Scotland. It wasn’t a robbery in broad daylight, but the robbery that a perhaps shockingly good Jack Catterall was the victim of was bad no matter what time of day it took place. Josh Taylor, who was somehow allowed to walk away with a 12 round split decision victory and his four 140 pound world titles, was given a gift.
The scores of 113-112 – one to Taylor one to Catterall – were even too close; with this writer (and Ring Magazine) having it a wide and comprehensive 115-111 for the challenger; while the score of 114-111 that one judge disturbingly handed in for Taylor was, well, disturbing.
There is no sitting on the fence with this one, no, “well, the scoring of a fight is a subjective thing.” No, this was a robbery, no doubt about it. Recently, one ESB poster wrote how the UK is the worst place in the boxing world these days when it comes to official scoring – not Italy, or Germany, or any place else where we have seen some bad decisions over the years. Last night’s hugely controversial decision backs up this claim, sadly.
So what next for Catterall (we speak about the winner first, as is the old tradition in the sport of boxing)? Taylor has already said he will not do the right thing, the honourable thing, and grant his fellow southpaw a rematch, so we don’t really know where Catterall, now 26-1(13) but he should be 27-0(13) and on top of the world, goes from here.
Catterall showed his stuff last night, however, and he very well may become a world champion if or when he is given another opportunity; this time with three competent judges working the fight. Catterall pushed Taylor far harder than the likes of Jose Ramirez, Regis Prograis and Viktor Postol managed, even scoring a knockdown along the way (although the Postol and Prograis fights were close affairs) and he deserves far more respect than he was given by the three wise men sat at ringside gave him last night.
As for Taylor, now 19-0(13) but he should he 18-1(13), a move up to welterweight may be next. Taylor, who is of course a very good fighter regardless of last night’s performance, had spoken of going up in weight and possibly challenging Terence Crawford before last night’s far harder then most expected fight. Now, Taylor may feel he has done all he can as a 140 pounder. But basing things on last night’s fight, Taylor will really have to go some to have a shot at beating the sublime Crawford.
Maybe Taylor had a bad night, maybe he was guilty of looking past Catterall. Regardless, Catterall’s rightful win was taken away from him.
“Today I should’ve been waking up with all the belts…. Boxing, shame on you. Dreams stolen,” Catterall wrote on social media this morning. The tweet pretty much says it all.
