Prograis feels Catterall beat Taylor twice

by Keith Idec

Regis Prograis considers Jack Catterall’s resume thin other than his two fights with Josh Taylor.

Those are very difficult fights to omit from Catterall’s record, of course, when assessing the British southpaw’s career. In fact, Prograis thinks his upcoming opponent deserved to beat Taylor twice, even though Catterall settled for a split-decision defeat in their first 12-rounder 2½ years ago at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.

“I think that the first fight he beat Taylor,” Prograis told Boxing News. “The second fight was closer. Now, I’m not gonna say he lost. But the second fight was definitely a closer fight, for sure. But the first fight, he definitely beat him.”

Prograis (29-2, 24 KOs) lost their 12-round, 140-pound title unification fight to Taylor by majority decision in October 2019 at O2 Arena in London. The initial bout between Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs) and Taylor (19-2, 13 KOs) was even closer than Taylor-Prograis.

Catterall sent Taylor to the canvas early in the eighth round of their February 2022 bout and won 113-112 on the card of judge Howard Foster. Taylor nicked Catterall according to judges Ian John Lewis (114-111) and Victor Loughlin (113-112), despite that he was knocked down and had a point deducted by referee Marcus McDonnell for hitting Catterall after the bell sounded to end the 11^th round.

McDonnell previously took a point from Catterall for holding during the 10^th round.

The scores of their rematch May 25 were wider than the official result of Catterall-Taylor I. Judges Mark Bates (117-111) and Kieran McCann (117-111) scored nine rounds apiece for Catterall, who won seven rounds a drew with Taylor in one round according to judge Lee Every (116-113).

Scotland’s Taylor had been beaten by Teofimo Lopez between the two Catterall clashes. He was boxing’s undisputed, undefeated 140-pound champion the first time he encountered Catterall.

Prograis, who will face Catterall on Saturday night, likened the scoring of Catterall-Taylor II to how judges handled the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield heavyweight championship rematch almost 25 years ago.

Lewis clearly won their first bout, but it was infamously declared a split draw in March 1999 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Judges Chuck Giampa (116-112), Bill Graham (117-111) and Jerry Roth (115-113) scored Lewis the winner of their rematch in November 1999 at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, though Prograis considered their second match more competitive than the first fight Eugenia Williams oddly credited Holyfield for winning (115-113).

“The first fight, I felt like he definitely won that fight,” Prograis said in reference to Catterall. “And when they fought the second time, it was like, ‘All right, you kinda gotta give it to him.’ Because I feel like the judges, they do look at a different thing. The judges don’t wanna have that pressure and they think, ‘We already screwed this guy the first time. We not gonna screw him again. We gonna look at different things.’ So, I feel like they owed him that fight. He couldn’t go 0-2. He couldn’t do that. He had to at least go 1-1 with him.”

While Catterall clearly beat the first fighter to defeat Prograis in their rematch, the former WBA/WBC 140-pound champion isn’t overly impressed by Catterall.

The skillful southpaw from Chorley has only lost the aforementioned split decision to Taylor. The otherwise noteworthy name on Catterall’s record is Jorge Linares, a four-division champion Catterall beat by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder last October 21 at Echo Arena in Liverpool.

“I think he’s OK,” Prograis said of Catterall. “I think he’s a OK fighter. He had success with the Josh Taylor thing, but that’s his biggest accomplishment in life, the Josh Taylor thing. I never wanna put nobody down. I just wanna say he’s a decent fighter – that’s all. There’s nothing else I can say. He’s a decent fighter, and that’s it.”

Handicappers have a higher opinion of Catterall. The near consensus among them is that Catterall is a 4-1 favorite to top Prograis in their 12-round, non-title fight, the main event of a card DAZN will stream worldwide from Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena.

DAZN’s undercard coverage is set to start at 7 p.m. GMT in the UK and 2 p.m. ET in the United States.