Chris Algieri doesn’t believe that British fighter Jack Catterall will be able to take his cautious, safety-first style of fighting to America and win decisions against aggressive fighters.
Algieri points out the light welterweight contender Catterall (30-1, 13 KOs) doesn’t engage enough and retreats too much in his fights to win decisions with that style in the U.S. the way he’s been doing in the UK. Catterall has a fighting style that only a promoter would love.
Although the U.S. does have fighters similar to Catterall, like Shakur Stevenson and Richardson Hitchins, they’re the rare exceptions. In Shakur’s case, he was promoted by the American promotional powerhouse Top Rank and won a silver medal in the 2016 Olympics for the U.S. He’s not going to keep winning with that style for long, though.
Catterall engages even less than Shakur and is not pleasant to watch. Even in the UK, Catterall is not a popular fighter. He’s winning with ugly style, but he’s also being carefully matched and hasn’t faced any killers at 140.
His best wins were against washed-up fighters Josh Taylor and Regis Prograis. His promoter hasn’t matched him against talented light welterweights like Alberto Puello, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, Teofimo Lopez, and Jose Ramirez.
“Eddie Hearn was calling out, which makes the most sense. He’s the cash cow more than anyone else in the division. So that fight makes sense from a money situation,” said Chris Algieri to Probox TV about promoter Eddie Hearn calling out WBO light welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez to face Jack Catterall next following his win over Regis Prograis last Saturday night.
“Liam Paro makes sense in terms of what’s most logistically easy to make, but that’s a tough fight. He’s a tough out. He’s a southpaw, he’s good, he knows how to box, and he’s got a lot of momentum. He’s coming off back-to-back stellar performances. He’s overperforming time and time again,” continued Algieri about IBF light welterweight champion Liam Paro being a tough fight for Catterall.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn will likely throw a lot of money at the winner of the December 7th fight between IBF light welterweight champion Liam Paro and Richardson Hitchins to get them to come to the UK to defend against Catterall in Manchester. That move would give Catterall’s his best chance of winning.
If Catterall has to fight Hitchins in New York, his chances of winning a decision might not be good if he’s retreating all around the ring like he did against Prograis last Saturday night in Manchester. He was literally running from Prograis at times, and it was awful to watch. It was very, very boring. Just based on Catterall’s unwillingness to engage in the first eight rounds, it is hard to make a case that he won any of the rounds.
“I don’t see Catterall winning fights in America. I don’t see him leaving his backyard and winning decisions. The guy just does not engage enough, and we’ve seen it time and time again with judges lately. They like the guy that goes forward, and he never goes forward, even when he’s got guys hurt.
“He backs up a lot; he has a nice jab. He has a nice left hand, and has a nice one-two, but it’s few and far between. I don’t see him taking that style out of the UK. In the UK, they like boxing a lot better. They understand. When I say, ‘Boxing,’ I mean they like guys that are boxers. I’m not saying the sport. They understand footwork better. They understand better. They understand boxing and moving. They appreciate the sweet science way more than we do over here.
“I don’t see Catterall’s style coming over here and being as dominant as he is. Call me crazy, but I don’t see that,” said Algieri.
Hearn is obviously going to do his utmost to keep Catterall fighting exclusively in the UK until His Excellency Turki Alalshikh an takes an interest in him and has him fighting on his Riyadh Season cards. I don’t know why Turki would want to use Catterall for his cards because he doesn’t entertain, and U.S. fans dislike his fighting style. He’s an eyesore, and the U.S. already has Shakur doing that, getting booed out of arenas. Interestingly, Hearn signed him, and thinks he can transform him into a global superstar.
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