Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall have agreed to a deal to meet in a rematch four months from now, on February 4th, in light welterweight action in the UK. The fight will be shown on ESPN+ in the U.S.
Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) no longer holds his undisputed light welterweight championship, however, after quietly vacating his IBF, WBA & WBO belts. He still holds his WBO 140-lb strap, so Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs) will have to be satisfied with fighting for only one title instead of four.
Last February in Glasgow, Scotland, Taylor, 31, defeated Catterall by a controversial 12 round split decision. Not surprisingly, the boxing world was up in arms about Taylor’s victory, and Catterall was screaming bloody murder.
Catterall was very, very unhappy, as he not only lost the fight, but he missed out on becoming the undisputed 140-lb champion.
The money that Catterall would have made as the undisputed champion at light welterweight is hard to know, but you got to believe this has really cost him to miss out on a lot of money.
“Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall have agreed to terms for a Feb. 4 rematch in the U.K. for Taylor’s WBO junior welterweight championship,” said ESPN.
You have to question this move by Taylor to stay at 140 because he looked weight drained for the Catterall fight last February, and he’s likely to continue to have problems getting down to the limit.
Taylor has outgrown the 140-lb division, and he needs to move up to 147 pronto. But given the huge backlash against him for his controversial 12 round split decision win, he’s decided to stay at 140 for the rematch with Catterall.
What’s interesting is Taylor has chosen to delay his decision to move up to 147, which would have seen him make excellent money fighting champions Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford.
Going into the Taylor-Catterall fight, it was believed that Taylor would win easily, as Catterall hadn’t fought world-level fighters and struggled at times against domestic-level opposition.
On paper, it was a mismatch, but Taylor looked terribly weight drained and listless during the fight, which is what gave Catterall his chance. If Taylor is once again weight-drained, Catterall has a good shot at winning.
“It wasn’t my best performance, and I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself being heavy favorite and boxing back at home,” said Taylor.
“Once I started catching him, I believe I got the win 100 percent. I know I won the fight; overall, I scored the bigger shots.”
Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall have agreed to terms for a Feb. 4 rematch in the U.K. for Taylor's 140-pound championship, sources told ESPN. Taylor defeated Catterall via controversial split-decision when they met in February. Bout will be streamed on ESPN+ stateside
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) October 17, 2022
