This Saturday night inside of The OVO Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, we have an entertaining and elite-level boxing match between Catterall vs Taylor, as Josh Taylor will be making his first undisputed light welterweight title defense against his WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall.
There is a little bit of controversy as this is a mandated defense for Taylor as he would have been stripped of the title if this defense did not happen, despite people wanting a rematch between Taylor and Jose Ramirez.
Taylor is entering this fight as an undefeated champion as he has an 18-0, 13 KOs record and is coming off a unanimous decision that lasted 12 rounds back in May of 2021, where he won both the WBC and WBO light-welterweight titles against Jose Ramirez. Jack Catterall is also undefeated with a 26-0 record with 13 KOs. He last fought Abderrazak Houta in November 2020, where he won by a split decision.
Josh Taylor is considered to be a heavy favorite in this fight as most sportsbooks have him listed at -1200 while Jack Catterall is listed at +650 to pick up an underdog victory and win the undisputed title.
Boxing betting could be one of the more lucrative wagers one can make, but the odds here seem to tell us it would take a lot to go wrong in order for a new champion to be crowned. The long layoff is going to play a factor into this fight, where Catterall’s legs can get a little tired as the fight continues into the later rounds.
This should be a very entertaining fight with the crowd backing its hometown fighter in Scotland. Taylor potentially can be overlooking this fight as this is a homecoming, and that causes some concern, but retaining his undisputed championship should be priority number one, and I do not see the possibility of him taking his eyes off of the prize after just capturing it.
Catterall has power and poise in the ring and also is entering with absolutely nothing to lose and everything to win. Catterall can enter with the mindset that Taylor is trying to “duck” him as Taylor wanted a rematch with Ramirez instead of this fight and was forced to take it or else being stripped of his titles.
Also, Catterall vs Taylor fight was forced to postpone when it was originally slated for December as he suffered a knee injury in training camp. I believe Taylor is well rested and ready after rehabilitating his injury and should be the prohibitive favorite with his countrymen behind him to retain his undisputed light-welterweight championship on Saturday.
This could be a great chance for an underdog to come out and prove why he is the number one contender for the championship and take out the prodigal son returning to Scotland, but unfortunately, those stories are only written in bedtime stories and not in the real world. Let’s just hope this fight goes a while, and it is an entertaining back-and-forth battle between two of the best fighters on the planet.
