Shakhram Giyasov takes WBA fight vs Jack Catterall with bigger fights elsewhere

Shakhram Giyasov is getting a title fight, but it doesn’t feel like the kind that clears anything up.

He’ll face Jack Catterall for the vacant WBA “regular” welterweight belt on May 23, which on paper looks like progress. A belt is a belt. It gives him something to fight for instead of waiting around for Rolando Romero, whose next move still points toward bigger names like Devin Haney.

Giyasov is an example of “taking the bird in the hand,” but that bird might be a decoy. By fighting Catterall on May 23, Giyasov is effectively opting out of the mandatory waiting game to enter a secondary lane that the WBA has turned into a career parking lot.

Taking a fight against a “Shakur-esque” southpaw like Catterall on roughly seven weeks’ notice is incredibly risky for a 32-year-old. Catterall’s entire game is built on making power punchers look clumsy.

The WBA ‘regular’ belt hasn’t always meant access to the real fights at 147. The WBA has used it before as a second track, where one champion moves in the spotlight and the other keeps busy without ever crossing into that lane. It can sit there for a while without forcing anything.

The moment Giyasov puts that belt around his waist, he becomes a secondary champion. This gives Rolly and potential opponent Devin Haney a valid excuse to ignore him for years, as the WBA rarely enforces “unification” between its own Super and Regular champions unless there is massive commercial pressure.

That’s what makes this feel a little strange. Giyasov had a clean position as a mandatory. Now he’s stepping into a fight that gives him a title but doesn’t guarantee anything changes around him. If he wins, he has a belt but still needs the right fight to come his way. If he loses, he’s out of the picture entirely.

At 32, Giyasov likely realized that the WBA was never going to force Rolly to fight him. Rather than wasting another year in court or in the rankings, he’s taking the “Regular” title and the Giza payday.

The problem is that if Catterall does what he does best. If he stinks the place out and wins a tactical decision, Giyasov’s career as a top-tier contender will be effectively over. He’s trading a “clean” mandatory position for a high-risk, low-reward title that might never lead to the big “Super” title shot he actually wants.