Debate raged after the first Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall fight. The only solution is to do it all again; "My goal remains the same. I want to be world champion, I want to be put in the history books," Catterall says
Wednesday 19 October 2022 08:39, UK
Months have passed since Jack Catterall lost a contentious split decision to Josh Taylor. In that time the enmity between the two has only grown.
As far as Catterall is concerned the only solution is to fight one another once again.
"I think that's a score we need to settle," Catterall told Sky Sports.
"It's a fight that I think needs to happen. I think there's tension there. I believe I won the last fight, Josh thinks he won it, there's a lot of public pressure and demand to see the fight, it's a big fight.
"It makes sense to me, it makes sense to Josh, let's get it on."
Negotiations are progressing. Taylor has had to vacate three of the four world titles he held to ensure this rematch could happen.
Catterall respects that but has to acknowledge it means he won't get another shot at the undisputed super-lightweight crown.
"He's vacated the belts [but retained the WBO title], he's not gone to 147lbs. The fight's there to be done now," Catterall said.
"That moment's been and gone. I don't believe any time soon anyone's going to challenge in a domestic fight for all four titles. But my goal remains the same. I want to be world champion, I want to be put in the history books and the fact that there's still a world title up for grabs it's certainly more than enough motivation to get it back on."
His disappointment at the result has only spurred him on. "It's frustrating because you trained from being an amateur at 10-years-old all the way to being 28 challenging for undisputed for it to be ripped away," Catterall said.
"It wasn't just for me, it was for everyone that supported me and guided me and been there for me on the journey and it kind of like stole the moment for everybody."
But he added: "I wouldn't say my motivation dipped after the fight, if anything it put the fire back in my belly. I dipped my toes in a world title fight for the first time, I didn't get the nod but I certainly know I can hang with them in world title fights and I intend to go and be a force there.
"I want to test myself and see how good I can be in the sport of boxing."
While Catterall intends to perform better in a potential rematch with Taylor, he is adamant that he deserved to win the first fight.
"I always say you have to rip the title away from the champion. I believe I did that, but again I was on the wrong end of the decision. I think I won pretty much won every round up until the knockdown, then I got the knockdown and we both had a point deducted but there was not a thought in my mind where I thought the fight was even close," Catterall insisted.
"It was frustrating, I was on cloud nine for a couple of minutes after the 12th bell and it come crashing down. I think you know when you've been in a ring. You've seen on my face after the fight I was celebrating. I've never celebrated as much because I knew I'd just done what a lot of people didn't believe I could do."
The debate since their first fight has only rumbled on. Catterall maintains there should be some form of redress after controversies like this.
"There's no accountability. It's all: 'that's my opinion, I think he won, I saw it like this.' Well, explain yourself" was his message to the judges and the British Boxing Board of Control.
"I threw more punches than Josh, I landed more, I landed more power shots, surely that statistic should be good enough to warrant some type of change.
"'In my opinion' is not good enough when you're putting your life on the line and it's your job and your career and somebody's opinion, a couple of judges' opinion decide," he continued.
"I'd like to know how each round is scored, what they're looking at. It just baffled me sometimes… Everything that goes into it, just for somebody's opinion to change the direction of the rest of your life."
For both men, a second fight is the chance to answer all the questions that lingered on after the first. That's one thing they have in common. The only way to move forward is to run it back all over again.
