Tony Bellew is confident that Great Britain will have another world champion fighter before too long.
Bellew recently celebrated the anniversary of his cruiserweight world title win against Ilunga Makabu in Liverpool back in 2016.
The fan-favourite fighter went into the bout an underdog having challenges for world honours twice before and fallen short. Despite that, he stopped Makabu in the third and claimed the belt. Bellew would fight three more times before retiring.
Now working as a pundit, he has his eye on future champions rather than those of the past, and he’s identified Jack Catterall as the next Brit to step up and do his job on the world stage.
“One of the most complete fighters in the country! Has the lot and can do it all! Soon to be champion of the world.”
Should Bellew’s prediction come true, Catterall would join six other male fighters from the UK as active world champions.
The 140lb-er is a slick-moving southpaw that finds angles to surprise and frustrate his opponents, and alongside coaches Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis comes prepared with a game plan for every fight.
Of course, many reading this will feel that ‘El Gato’ of Chorley should already be undisputed at super lightweight. His points loss to Josh Taylor in Glasgow in early 2022 was one of the most controversial in recent times.
Catterall pursued a rematch and served over a year out of the ring whilst doing so. Things fell apart, and he recently returned with a dominating distance performance over Darragh Foley.
His promoter, Eddie Hearn, is keen to match him with WBC World Champion, Regis Prograis, soon – another man who has faced and lost to Taylor.
Manager Sam Jones recently told Boxing Social he has ‘no doubt in his mind’ that Catterall will be a world champion within the next year.