Josh Taylor: I scored the Jack Catterall fight…and narrowly won! | boxing news
Josh Taylor has revealed he scored his welterweight title fight with Jack Catterall himself – and still believes he deserved a narrow win from their controversial clash.
Taylor retained his belts with a split decision in February, which sparked heated debate and an investigation by the British Boxing Board of Control.
Ian John-Lewis, a judge who scored in favor of the Scot, was demoted by the BBBofC, but Taylor insists his performance deserved a narrow win after watching the fight.
“I’m still of the opinion that I did just enough to win the fight,” he said. Sky Sports News.
“I’ve watched it a few times now and my first impressions when I watched the fight was that it was a really close fight and it could have gone either way.
“I personally scored the fight 113-112 for myself, but I can understand why a lot of people thought Jack won because there were a lot of rounds in there that could have gone either way, you could have scored it for Jack or for myself, lots of swing turns.
“So if there had been a draw it would have been a fair result, if it had gone to Jack by a point or two I wouldn’t have grumbled either.
“Obviously I would have been gutted if I had lost my titles, but that’s what it is. It’s one of those fights that could have gone either way and I came away with a victory over a split decision of the judges.
“Turns out I got the win and I felt like I did enough to win too.”
Sky Sports’ Adam Smith reflects on the controversial decision that saw Josh Taylor beat Jack Catterall and retain his status as undisputed world welterweight champion
Although he thought the fight was close, Taylor was unimpressed with his own performance in the ring, but admits he was still dealing with the aftermath of the weight loss.
He does, however, think the fight was one of Catterall’s best performances.
“I think I did a good job of pushing Jack up and landing the bigger, heavier punches and pushing him and getting him on the back foot,” said Taylor.
“But in terms of my own performance, I thought it was a really bad performance for me, well below average. I couldn’t really go for it and I think the weight reduction had a huge impact on my performance and my legs were slow.
Jack Catterall’s trainer Jamie Moore says his fighter should be given another chance to challenge for all the welterweight division belts, following last month’s controversial loss to Josh Taylor.
“Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon that I was beaten well, but Jack came on and he gave his best performance and I gave a way below average performance.
“But fair play to Jack, he came and fought well and fought hard.”
Revenge on the cards?
Josh Taylor says he’s open to a rematch with Jack Catterall, but maintains he should be at catchweight
Although Taylor would love an immediate rematch with Catterall, it’s not something he can commit to if he wants to keep his belts.
He does, however, want the game to go down the line as he seeks to reclaim his authority as the undisputed champion.
Taylor said: “Going forward, I’d like to have a rematch with him and fix it and prove that I’m the best in the division, but I can’t do that next because the WBA has already ordered my mandatory defense against a guy from Puerto Rico.
“Then it would be the WBC and then the WBO, so it becomes mandatory fight after mandatory fight.
“It’s almost impossible for me to give Jack the immediate rematch because these proxies are all coming and if I don’t do them I’ll be stripped of my titles.
“I would like to do this to smooth things over and give back my authority to the fact that I am the best in the division, but it is proving very difficult.”