Boxing Challenge: Taylor gets Home Cooking vs Catterall

    The boxing weekend started in Glasgow, Scotland, and didn't end there but the talk of the boxing world is still focused on the results there as Josh Taylor slid through a hole the size of a mouse to defend all four of his junior welterweight titles via split decision over a surprisingly strong Jack Catterall.

Catterall scored the fight's only knockdown in the eighth round with a short left hand and won almost all of the early rounds but did allow Taylor to take many of the late rounds to make the fight close enough to cause controversy in the scoring and even give some viewers validation for Taylor squeaking out a close win.

Much of the controversy (and strangely numbered scorecards) centered around referee Marcus McDonnell, who took a point from Catterall for holding, although both fighters had been holding throughout the fight, and neither deserved a point deduction that appeared to have canceled Catterall's eighth-round knockdown on the scorecards.

That lasted only five minutes or so when McDonnell cost Taylor a point for tapping Catterall after the bell that ended round eleven which hurt Catterall so badly that he ignored it and walked to his corner.

The scoring would have been even more ridiculous without the moronic point deduction as the one judge that scored for Catterall did so 113-112 (six-six in rounds with Catterall losing the tenth round point and Taylor losing two points for his deduction and a knockdown), so had the point not been taken away, the result would have been a majority decision for Taylor instead of a split decision.

Taylor won one card by the same 113-112 score, which meant that judge thought Taylor won seven rounds, which is hard to believe, and the worst card saw Taylor given a 114-111 nod that saw Taylor win an incredible eight rounds.

My card was 114-111 Catterall (seven-five in rounds with each fighter losing their points) and it was one of those fights that didn't have many swing rounds, so 6-6 in rounds is difficult for me to get to, let alone 7-5 or 8-4 for Taylor.

A cut and bruised Taylor stated that he has no interest in a prospective rematch after his train dodge and he is expected to move to welterweight, which would vacate all four titles.

Off of this outing, Taylor may not fare as well as expected at the higher weight, although it could be a case of Taylor taking Catterall lightly as well as having issues making the 140-pound limit.

I would have to think after this performance that Jack Catterall will likely be in line for a fight for one of those vacated titles and unless this was the performance of his life that would be unlikely to be repeated, Catterall is likely to win one of those titles.

Sadly, I've seen worse decisions but this still was a wrong one in my opinion.

I have seen some reliable observers believe that Taylor squeaked the decision out but I respectfully disagree.

Jack Catterall controlled the fight with his boxing ability, outlanded Taylor 120-73, and scored the fight's only knockdown, so I have a hard time justifying a Taylor win.

I'll be back later after the results of the Sunday card from London with the Saturday night Showtime card with two major upsets...