If you have been frustrated whilst being made to wait for the demanded return fight between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall, imagine how Catterall must feel. Ever since that February night in Glasgow, when almost everyone felt Catterall had done more than enough to have scored the upset win over the defending unified 140 pound champ, has Catterall be waiting and waiting for a return go at Taylor.
Well, the wait will take a little longer. The rematch, which was set for February 4th, will now be pushed back, most likely to March. Mike Coppinger reports how, due to a conflict of schedules, with Sky Sports not wanting to have two pay-per-view offerings so close together, the Taylor-Catterall rematch has been postponed and the Chris Eubank-Liam Smith PPV fight will go ahead as planned, this on January 21st.
The brass at Sky Sports feel fans would have struggled to cough up the dough for two PPV offerings in the space of two weeks; this after Christmas, with the cost of living crisis not likely to have been sorted out by then. Some fans may feel the less important Eubank-Smith fight should have been the fight that was pushed back, but there we are. Catterall, and Taylor, who wants to win in decisive, no arguments fashion this time around, will have to wait.
Taylor, who now holds only the WBO light-welterweight title, has seen some serious momentum dry up. Going into the Catterall fight, “The Tartan Tornado” was coming off that big, title fight unification win over Jose Ramirez and even bigger things were being talked about; such as a move up to welterweight and maybe a Super Fight with Terence Crawford. Yet after the almighty struggle Taylor, 19-0(13) had with big underdog Catterall, it’s been a long period of, well, of nothing from Taylor.
Catterall too has been idle, waiting as he has been and as he continues to wait for the big rematch. The return fight was set for December, but Taylor suffered an injury to his knee (the fact that this fight has already been postponed once, and due to how long both fighters have been waiting for it, may make some fans feel even more strongly that Sky should have postponed the Eubank-Smith fight instead). 13 months out of action is of course no good for any fighter, especially one as talented and seemingly set for greatness as Taylor was/is. Catterall, 26-1(13) is a couple of years younger than Taylor at age 29, yet he too has seen precious time wasted.
Let’s hope three times proves to be a charm, and the new date for Taylor-Catterall II, whenever it is, comes off.
