Promoter Eddie Hearn wants his fighter Jack Catterall to challenge for a world title next against either IBF light welterweight champion Subriel Matias or WBC champ Devin Haney following his conclusive 12-round unanimous decision win over Josh Taylor (19-2, 13 KOs) on Saturday night in their long-awaited rematch at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England.
Catterall Vindicates Himself, But No Title On The Line
There weren’t world titles on the line tonight, considering the 33-year-old Taylor had vacated and lost his four belts in the last two years. That’s the unfortunate part because the only thing Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs) gained tonight was revenge for his controversial twelve round unanimous decision loss to Taylor in February 2022 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Tonight’s scores were 117-111, 116-113, and 117-111. There was a lot of grumbling from boxing fans about the pair of 117-111 scores, but it doesn’t matter. Catterall clearly won the fight, so it doesn’t matter that a couple of the scores were a little wide. Taylor never came close to winning. I had it 9-3 in favor of Catterall, and it could have been 10-2 because Taylor couldn’t hit anything. His accuracy was nowhere.
“He deserves to be world champion. That’s got to be the focus,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing about Jack Catterall’s next move after his win over Josh Taylor tonight in Leeds.
“We’re deep at 140. We’ve got [IBF light welterweight champion] Subriel Matias fighting Liam Paro coming up. We’ve got [WBC 140-lb champion] Devin Haney fighting Sandor Martin coming up. I’d like to see this guy [Catterall] challenge and win a world championship,” said Hearn.
Obstacles in the Path to a Title Shot
Catterall is going to have to wait for his chance to fight for a world title because Subriel Matias is defending his IBF title against Liam Paro, and Devin Haney has an overdue mandatory defense of his WBC title against Sandor Martin.
I doubt that Haney would agree to bypass that fight because he would have to pay Sandor a step aside, and it’s a fight that he needs right now to boost his shattered self-confidence after his loss to Ryan Garcia on April 20th.
Hearn is going to have to find someone else for Catterall to fight to keep busy while he waits for one of the two champions he mentioned are free and willing to fight this guy. As far as Haney goes,. He might not be interested in fighting Catterall because he’s not a household name in the U.S, and you can’t sell a fight involving him on PPV in the States. That would be a disaster for Haney, and he doesn’t need any more PPV duds.
The Challenges of Selling Catterall in the U.S. Market
Matias might be interested in fighting Catterall if Hearn offers him enough money. That’s still not a fight that can bring in the kind of money that Matias can make fighting other guys like Teofimo Lopez, Isaac Cruz or Devin Haney.
Catterall isn’t popular in the U.S, and the way he fought tonight, it wasn’t entertaining in terms of action. It was a lot clinch and jabbing. It was Shakur-esque and that style doesn’t sell to Americans. Hearn needs to understand that. Americans don’t like clinchers and jabbers, and that’s how Catterall fights. He’s not a brawler.
If Ryan Garcia is the gold standard for what U.S. fans want to pay for on PPV, Catterall is more of a copper penny standard, and that won’t work in luring the likes of Haney or Matias to give him a voluntary title shot unless Hearn wants to pay them obscene amounts of money. Hearn won’t want to hemorrhage money by overpaying Matias or Haney for a fight that won’t sell to U.S audiences involving Catterall with his Shakur-esque fighting style.
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