Junior welterweight contender Jack ‘El Gato’ Catterall 28-1 (13) is hoping that victory over Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 19-1 (13) will breath some life into his stalled career.
The 30-year-old British southpaw will finally get the chance to avenge his disputed split points loss to Scottish lefty Taylor, 33, when they meet for the second time at First Direct Arena in Leeds, England on Saturday night.
Since their first encounter in February 2022, repeated attempts to get them to share a ring again have been thwarted by injury and circumstance.
Taylor has boxed just once since then, a clear-cut unanimous decision loss to WBO junior welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez 20-1 (13) in New York last June.
Catterall did not fight for 15 months after the Taylor defeat and lost much of the momentum he gained from that strong performance in their 140-pound undisputed championship clash.
But in the past 12 months he has boxed twice, scoring a 10-round points win over Darragh Foley 22-5-1 (10) in Manchester one year ago and a 12-round decision win over veteran Jorge Linares 47-9 (29) in Liverpool last October.
A win over Taylor will put him is position to pick up his career from where it was two years ago.
“I want to prove myself and fight the best – if this is the fight and victory that I need to put myself one step closer to the world titles, then game on,” Catterall said.
“I want to be involved in big fights and this is a big fight. It would have been the cherry on top if we could have got it for a world title – I have ambitions to go on and win a world title – but this fight is worthy of a world title, and it gets me up for it.
“I think we’ve had two years since the fight where I’ve matured in and out of the ring. I’ve been doing a lot of developing and I think it’s my time now to prove that I do belong in these big fights. Once I beat Josh I’ll go on and win a world title.
“Do I think Josh Taylor ever avoided me? Of course. Josh doesn’t want to fight me. Since the first fight we’ve had the fight rescheduled maybe four times now. He’s looking for any way out.
“He’s in a position where he has to fight me. I think he’s been forced into this position. When you look at the landscape, the fights that are there and the fights that aren’t there, this fight makes a lot of sense. Do I think he wants it? No. Does he have to take it? Yes.
“He didn’t want this. He had great plans to go to 147 and challenge for world titles up there. He cemented 140 but unfortunately for him, his biggest fight is me. I know that he’s my biggest fight, I can accept that, but for him I think it’s frustrating that he can’t go up and fight [Terence] Crawford etc, so he’s got to fight me.”
Revenge, says Catterall, will be sweet.
“He’s not my type of person,” he said. “I don’t think we would go out for a coffee or a beer. I just don’t like him. I can’t wait to stop talking about him. I want to beat him in every way possible.
“I want to make it slow and painful, but I also want to knock him out cold. He should enjoy this – it’s probably going to be his last fight. There’s no room to hide, Josh. Rival; enemy; Josh Taylor is that to me. The judges can’t save him. I can’t fucking wait.”
