Josh Taylor: “Trust me, nobody wants the rematch more than me. I can’t wait to settle the score.”

Josh Taylor: “Trust me, nobody wants the rematch more than me. I can’t wait to settle the score.”

It’s been two years since one of the most controversial fights of recent times. Incredibly loud cries of robbery and more after Josh Taylor had retained his undisputed world super-lightweight baubles in Glasgow in 2022 against Jack Catterall.

It was a decision that was widely condemned. Catterall, seemingly being denied a rightful victory and the millions that would have come with that win over Taylor.

But, after several false dawns, Taylor and Catterall will finally settle their toxic feud this Saturday night at the Leeds Direct Arena just over three years after Taylor beat Jose Ramirez leaving him as the one true king of his division.

But the world titles are no more. The unbeaten record has gone also. A defeat to Teofimo Lopez last year ended plenty for a fighter who once held every single bauble. But this Saturday night, Taylor will get the chance to get back in the world title picture and go back to where it all started to go wrong for him.

“It’s a chance to put all the doubts to bed,” Taylor told me over Zoom. “I think people forget that we were genuinely signed up to the rematch straight away. I got the injury about four days before we were about to announce it at the first fight between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank. I waited until we had the scans before we told anyone, but then the significance of the injury came through. It was a full-thickness tear of my plantar fascia tendon. It was a horrific injury and kind of killed it in the water. But that was taken out of my hands. Sometimes, that happens. So, instead of Jack and Ben Shalom getting the fight scheduled straight away, they took Jack off for another fight, and that fell through.

“But by that point, the WBO had come to me to fight my mandatory. So, I was not giving up all of my belts without a fight. So I got told to fight Teofimo Lopez. It was in Madison Square Garden. It was my biggest payday. So I took it with both hands. The plan was to win and come back and fight Jack, but obviously, I got beat, and it didn’t go to plan. But we are here now. Better late than never. Trust me, nobody wants the rematch more than me.”

The widespread condemnation of the scorecards that enabled Taylor to retain those undisputed world titles two years ago started a tsunami-type wave of emotion and anger. But not everyone agreed it was indeed a robbery, even though it’s fair to say the majority had Catterall beating Taylor. And by some distance. Veteran American scribe Dan Rafael had it much closer than many of his contemporaries. As did Steve Bunce, who, while he had Catterall winning, it was only by a couple of rounds. They were not alone in that viewpoint, Taylor amongst them.

Taylor was largely criticised for saying he that he had edged the fight, but he still believes it could have gone either way.

“I do think the first fight was blown up out of context,” Taylor says of the night that ended in controversy. “From the very first bell on the Sky commentary, it was Jack, Jack, Jack. You have to remember at the time 90% of the population didn’t give Jack a chance of beating me. Everyone expected me to blow him away. But just because someone does better than you expect, it doesn’t mean that you win the fight. But to this day, I still think it could have gone either way. It was a close fight. I felt I had done enough in the later rounds to just nick it. But we are here now, and I can’t wait to settle the score.”

The first meeting with Catterall came at a time when just maybe he had taken his eye off the prize ever so slightly. The hero of his people. A little bit of complacency came into his world. Catterall wasn’t what he wanted. The bigger names of the sport were his ideal next step. A nightmare training camp added to his woes. Taylor believes that version of himself will not be seen again and that his heated rival has missed his golden ticket.

“Absolutely it was me at my worst in the first fight,” Taylor says of his performance in Glasgow. “In my amateur and professional career, that was my worst ever performance. I will never be that poor again. Jack has ruined his chances of becoming a world champion. That was his chance, and he absolutely blew it. If I’d have fought like that against Teofimo Lopez, I would have got knocked out.

“I came into training camp well overweight. Hindsight looking back, I was still riding high from becoming the undisputed champion. I was just on cloud nine catching up with everybody. I was looking at moving forward and challenging for a second world title at welterweight. People were talking about me potentially fighting Terence Crawford and Errol Spence and all that kind of stuff. But then, to come back and fight Jack Catterall, who had fought and beat nobody, it was like bursting my bubble. That was the crucial mistake I made, by just being fit and thinking I’ll win this fight, no problem.

“I just didn’t take him too seriously. I didn’t think he was much of a threat, and it told in my performance. I came into the cam way too heavy, and I tried to take that weight off too quickly. I picked up a chest infection, and then I got Covid. I picked up an injury to my leg. But even then I was thinking just get fit and I’ll be fine and that’s why my performance was so bad. I left it late to the last minute to take the weight off, and that’s why I was so weak.”

The controversial nature of the scoring got more than toxic when members of Taylor’s family were unforgivably targeted online.

“I’ve got thick skin,” Taylor told me of his thoughts on the online abuse aimed at himself. “But when the picture of me and the wife was posted with my belts, that was when the nature of the abuse changed. A couple of trolls put the place of my wife’s work online, and we got comments that we would do this and do that. If anyone had had that sort of thing said to their family, I wouldn’t expect any man to sit back and take that. I probably didn’t help myself at times. But when you are getting loads of abuse directed at you and you eventually say something back, you are all of a sudden the asshole. You’re the guy with no class because you are saying something back to someone. Every time I would turn on my phone and see those messages, but once in a while, I would just say fuck you to someone, but yet, I’m the asshole.”

The Taylor Catterall feud shows no sign of letting up. A post-fight meet-up with coffee and cake on the menu looks remote at best. There might be an acknowledgement of respect, however grudgingly that might come. But any post-fight friendship seems unlikely.

“There will always be a little bit of respect there because I have shared a ring with him. But I can’t ever see me taking that man for a pint that’s for sure.”

Josh Taylor is coming off two fights that have left many signalling that his best days are firmly behind him. Fights with Catterall in 2023, and Teofimo Lopez last year in New York that look a far cry from what came before. But Taylor sees it differently. And is using the naysayers as motivation for Saturday night.

“It adds fuel to the fire,” Taylor says of those who doubt he is still in his prime. “But what do the vast majority of people know about boxing? I qualified for the London Olympics in 2012. From there I went to the European and World Championships. From there, I won gold at the Commonwealth Games. I won all these world titles and became the undisputed world champion. Something very few people have ever done. But after one bad performance, I am finished and they forget everything else I have done. Anyone can have a bad day at the office.

“But I would say it’s definitely a must-win fight. I believe I am five levels above Jack Catterall, but I have to go out there and prove it. A win would put all this to bed. I can then get back on track and get my world titles back.”

Taylor isn’t making the same mistakes as last time. Two years ago it was thoughts of Crawford and Spence. On Saturday night, only one fighter is on his mind.

“For now all I am thinking about is Jack. But after I would love to run it back with Teofimo. I know I can be better than I was in the first fight. But I have made that mistake of looking to what’s ahead and I have paid for it. I won’t be doing that again.”

Excuses, and plenty of them, always seemingly follow a defeat or even a bad performance. But Taylor does seem to have a more genuine case for what happened last time. Injuries, coming into camp, being well overweight, looking ahead, you suspect Taylor would now have learned valuable lessons. If Catterall thinks he will be facing the same fighter as two years ago, he could be greatly mistaken.

It is almost certainly now or never for Josh Taylor. His career can ill afford another reversal. But Taylor seems in a good place. Certainly, he is in a far better place than he was the last time he faced Jack Catterall inside a boxing ring. The odds are much closer this time. But in many ways, they are stacked a little more in Taylor’s favour.

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing