Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall VERDICT: The Fight That Could Set Boxing Back 30 Years

In over just half a century we’ve seen Joe Bugner controversially beating the legendary Sir Henry Cooper by a ¼ of a point over 15 gruelling rounds in March 1971, Ken Norton vs Muhammad Ali at the Yankee Stadium in 1976, Hagler vs Leonard, Watson vs Eubank 1, Benn vs Eubank 2, but that all pales into insignificance after the events in Glasgow on Saturday night. What was on the agenda was perhaps the most anticipated non Heavyweight domestic World title fight in years? Josh Taylor the undisputed 5 belt holding, Light Welterweight World Champion against his WBO mandatory challenger, Chorley’s Jack Catterall, who had previous ‘stood aside’ in order for Edinburgh’s Taylor to embark on a unique unification bout in Las Vegas during lockdown. But what followed after 12 enthralling rounds was perhaps the most disgusting decision in a British ring in decades. After clearly being out thought and out fought over the 36 minute duration, Taylor won a ‘split decision’ with judges Ian John Lewis (114-111) and Victor Loughran (113-112) scoring the contest in the Scottish fighter favour, despite him being knocked down and having as point taken off for hitting after the bell. Any number of superlatives and adjectives cannot really cover it, Catterall is naturally the biggest casualty in this sordid episode but what does this incident do for the overall credibility of boxing overall? Sky Sports, amongst other broadcasters covering the sport, were, with the ‘new kid on the block’ Ben Shalom, trying to bring a new younger audience, the events of Saturday night bordered on something you’d see in American Wrestling. Anthony Brown, an experienced corner man, who works with the likes of Chris Eubank Junior and exciting Heavyweight prospect Tommy Welch is succinct in his appraisal. “ The decision was disgusting, pure and simple, but beyond Jack Catterall’s misfortune it’s the long term damage it could do to the sport. Every young boxer will look at that and think could I dedicate my life to the sport, train hard, only to be the next one to get robbed?” “And the wider public will ask, do we really want to pay good money or tune in to watch a sport that is that corrupt?” Whilst it’s extremely unlikely or unprecedented that the fight result will be overturned, it now falls to Robert Smith, the General Secretary of The British Boxing Board of Control to try and sort out this mess, ironically it was his father, the late and much respected boxing trainer Andy, who was in Joe Bugner’s corner that fateful night at Wembley 51 years ago this month.