If Jack Catterall could breathe a huge sigh of relief after finally settling the score with Josh Taylor on Saturday night, the 30-year-old’s trainer, Jamie Moore, could also look back on a job well done.
Moore and Catterall have forged a tight team over the years but were brought even closer by the disappointment of the controversial split decision loss Catterall suffered to Taylor more than two years ago.
If Saturday’s fight was a must win, high pressure moment in Catterall’s career it was also a crucial situation for the Mancunian trainer who has spent months of his life studying video of Taylor, looking for weaknesses and opportunities and devising a gameplan which would enable Catterall to even the score with the former undisputed super lightweight champion and move on with his career.
Moore has always been a massive believer in Catterall’s ability and heaped praise on him at the post-fight press conference.
“I keep talking about Jack as a hybrid. He has to be adaptable and be able to do a little bit of everything,” Moore said. “We anticipated Josh would come strong and try and put it on him. He created that gap in between them and the only thing I would say is that he got a little bit too greedy, too early and maybe gassed himself a little bit and that allowed Josh to come into the fight as the second half kicked in.
“He [Catterall]’s a phenomenal fighter and he’s a dream to train. He’s obsessed with boxing. He’s educated himself and it’s my job to use the fighter’s skillset. I can coach people and improve them. I’ve not had to do that with Jack. All I’ve had to do is take his skillset onboard and say, ‘In these moments, this is what you should do.’
“It’s like I’m guiding him through it rather than telling him what to do. He’s a phenomenal fighter, I promise you that. I’m not going to take the credit for it.”
Catterall’s relaxed style and excellent defense has allowed him to spend the majority of his in-ring career in the comfort zone, able to control the pace and range of his fights and only accelerating through the gears when he wanted.
There were times when Taylor forced Catterall to fight when he wanted to rest and the Scotsman posed problems that made the 30-year-old dig deep and wrest back control. Moore feels that the 12-round battle was the ideal preparation for Catterall who now enters a strong world title mix at 140lbs.
Ryan Garcia’s failure to make weight means that Devin Haney remains the WBC champion despite his loss to Garcia. The dangerous Subriel Matias is the IBF champion while Isaac Cruz is the WBA titleholder and Teofimo Lopez holds the WBO belt.
“It’s the first time that Jack has ever been in a dogfight type of fight because Josh was the first person who has been good enough to drag him into that scenario,” Moore said. “He’ll learn so much from that and I’m glad because if Eddie [Hearn] is going to get him a world title shot, he’s going to have to be prepared and experienced in doing that sort of stuff and that’s the best sort of training he can do for it.”
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