Retired former world title challenger turned Sky Sports pundit Matthew Macklin believes we will see an even better version of Jack ‘El Gato’ Catterall 26-1 (13) when he takes on WBO welterweight champion Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 19-0 (13) in an immediate rematch early in the new year with a date and venue yet to be announced.
The 29-year-old Catterall surprised Taylor, 31, in their first bout for the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF 140-pound championships at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland in February.
The all-southpaw battle saw the lead change several times but it appeared that England’s Catterall generally got the better of the action. Scotland’s Taylor was cut twice by the left eye and was down in the eighth round.
The bout got a little messy after that with Catterall deducted a point for holding in the 10th and Taylor docked a point in the 11th for punching after the bell.
Judge Howard Foster awarded the bout to Catterall by a score of 113-112 but was overruled by judges Victor Loughlin and Ian John-Lewis who turned in cards of 113-112 and 114-111 for Taylor respectively.
The decision was contentious enough that British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC) announced they would investigate the scoring. As a result, judge Ian John-Lewis was downgraded by the BBBoC after his controversial scorecard.
Macklin believes Catterall will grow an extra leg now knowing that he can hang with Taylor.
“It’s a funny one because a lot of people will think – and it’s probably true – that Taylor underestimated Catterall the first time round,” Macklin said to Sky Sports.
“I think he did, I think everyone did, so the natural assumption would be that he won’t do that again and it will be a different fight this time.
“But I think Catterall will have gone up 10 or 20 per cent because of the confidence and belief from the first fight. Even though he probably thought he belonged at that level, now he knows he does.
“The other thing is, he might just have bad style for Taylor, he’s pretty awkward, Jack Catterall.
“I didn’t think he’d put on the performance he did, but I remember saying in fight week that I thought it was going to a good fight. Although Catterall hadn’t beaten any particularly big names, he’d always looked to me like he had more in him, so I thought he could step up.
“Don’t get me wrong, I was surprised he stepped up as much as he did, but I do think he’s a good fighter. This is going to be a harder fight than what it should have been for Taylor first time round, because now Catterall really believes he can beat him and he knows what to expect.
“The pressure is on Taylor because most people, the overwhelming majority, felt Catterall was hard done by in that fight, so it’s about redemption for Taylor really.
“I think it gives Taylor time to mentally get over it all and obviously he’s teamed up with a new trainer, so it gives him a bit more time with them.”
