Junior welterweight contender Jack ‘El Gato’ Catterall 26-1 (13) remains unconvinced he will ever get the chance to avenge his controversial loss to undefeated former undisputed 140-pound champion Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 19-0 (13).
The 29-year-old British southpaw was unlucky not to get the decision when he faced fellow lefty Taylor, 32, in Glasgow, Scotland for the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF titles one year ago. The champion had to rise from the canvas in the eighth to eke out a razor-thin split decision victory.
The fallout from the debatable result was enough to convince Taylor to run it back, but a series of postponements have taken some of the shine off the bout.
Most recently, Taylor withdrew from a March 4 date citing a foot injury. Catterall opted to take a stay-busy fight on March 25 against an opponent to be named while waiting for Taylor to heal.
Now it is being reported that Taylor is in negotiations to face former undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez 18-1 (13) next, leaving the Catterall rematch on ice.
“You know what it is, we was obviously meant to fight Josh, November, December, February, March, and I’m done waiting for it now,” Catterall said to iD Boxing.
“You have seen this morning the reports of Taylor-Teofimo, they’re talking about fighting. So we kind of got the March 25th date as a keep-busy, active date.
“I’m not convinced the Josh fight is going to happen now. He’s pulled out more than once. I wanted the Josh fight. I believe I beat Josh and it would have been nice to put that to bed. That’s out of the question now.
“I want the biggest fights possible. I want the Regis Prograis fight. In my opinion, we both beat Josh, so we have that in common. And it’s an easy fight to make. Regis is up for the fight and it’s a great fight. We’ll see how it unfolds [in] the next couple of weeks.”
Catterall’s promoter Ben Shalom is not giving up on the Taylor fight just yet, insisting they have a water-tight contract for the rematch.
“Jack’s waiting and we’re waiting,” the BOXXER boss told Sky Sports. “We were about to announce the fight and Josh Taylor said that he was injured and we’re still waiting on when Josh Taylor’s going to be fit. We have a contract for that fight. [Talk of Teofimo Lopez] is a bit confusing to us but we have a contract for the fight and we’re waiting to agree a date as soon as Josh Taylor’s fit.”
Shalom said it was important to keep Catterall active after a year on the sidelines.
“He has to fight,” he said. “He fought once in two years. His career’s been stalled. Jack wants the Josh Taylor fight. We’ve been told that it’s definitely not going to be March, April, May, so he wants a tick over, he wants to get out. An eight-rounder, get the cobwebs off and we’re ready for Josh Taylor as soon as he’s ready.”
