Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall are finally set to have a long-awaited rematch this weekend but ahead of that, the judge who controversially scored the first fight has made a shocking admission.
The two super lightweights initially fought back in 2022. It was a close fight with plenty of back and forth. Taylor was defending all four of his world titles as the undisputed champion and went on to win the controversial bout via the judges’ scorecards.
Chorley man Catterall was the heavy underdog going into the fight but managed to knock Taylor down. As such, many onlookers believed at the end of the fight that the Englishman had done enough to become undisputed champion at 140lbs.
Ever since then, there has been real spitefulness between the two, plenty of wars of words and even them grabbing and pushing in the face-to-face they have done in the lead-up to this rematch which finally takes place in Leeds live on DAZN.
The fight has been locked in before now but injuries have delayed it and so the tension has continued to simmer.
Now, speaking to George Groves Boxing Club, referee and judge Ian John-Lewis has had his say and made the shock admission he had never heard of Catterall.
“I don’t see what the problem was. All three judges, we was only one round apart, I was in the majority with my colleague. It wasn’t a straightforward fight, it was an absolute rubbish fight really, considering you’ve got the undisputed world champion there and the challenger who I’ve never heard of.
“I thought that Taylor was going to smash this guy up but what shocked me was the first round when Catterall, unbeaten, when he caught him with the left hand I thought oh he’s pretty good this guy, I’d never seen him before.”
John-Lewis then explained why he thinks Catterall ended up losing the fight.
“He was very awkward, but what I didn’t realise until after the fight was he hadn’t boxed for 14 moths. I know inactivity is a killer and that’s what done him. Inactivity. He did well to contain Josh Taylor who is a good fighter.
“After 8 rounds he was ahead on points with all three judges. He lost it over the last four rounds because he began to tire, Taylor sensing it was close upped it and won it. That’s it. I couldn’t understand what all the commotion was about.”
Catterall will be looking to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistake again this weekend.
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