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Arum: Taylor & Catterall should have deciding trilogy fight
Controversy has haunted the rivalry between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall, to such a degree that promoter Bob Arum believes it merits a deciding trilogy fight.
After unifying the WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF super-lightweight titles, in 2022 Taylor defended his undisputed crown against Catterall in Glasgow. Taylor won a contentious split decision which led, eventually, to a rematch in May.
Catterall got his revenge, beating Taylor on a unanimous decision, 116-113 and 117-111 twice.
But Top Rank’s Arum condemned the scoring of that second fight.
“Let me clarify. I was in Leeds for that fight. I watched that fight carefully. There were three possible ways to score the fight: 7-5 Catterall [in rounds], 7-5 Taylor, 6-6 even,” Arum told Sky Sports.
“The scorecards from these judges appointed by the British Board were just so out of line that they were unacceptable. Now I don’t think there was any kind of funny business going on or anything like that.”
He added: “I was really teed off because Taylor is my fighter, we promote him. But it wasn’t necessarily because I thought he clearly won the fight. I just thought it was a disservice to him that the scorecards were so wide. I was sitting next to Eddie Hearn, whose fighter was Catterall, and he was scoring the fight and we had it a very, very close fight.”
Sky Sports has contacted the British Boxing Board of Control for comment.
Arum considers the best way to settle the issue between Taylor and Catterall could be a third fight.
“Why not? They certainly fought their hearts out for 12 rounds and the crowd loved the fight,” he explained.
“Because the scorecards really created a controversy I think a third fight would be in order. But let’s see how it plays out.”
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