Promoter Ben Shalom is optimistic that his snake-bitten client, Jack Catterall, will have a significant fight lined up for him in his next ring outing.
In a recent interview, Shalom, the head of UK-based Boxxer, confirmed that negotiations for a fight between England’s Catterall and Regis Prograis, the WBC 140-pound titlist from New Orleans, are proceeding well, going so far as to say, “I think it will happen.” At the same time, Shalom issued a note of caution and refrained from making any bold declarations about the matchup.
“Yeah, I hope it will,” Shalom said of a Prograis-Catterall title bout in an interview with iD Boxing.
Catterall, 29, has been on the search for a new opponent after his expected rematch with Scotland’s Josh Taylor abruptly fell through. Last year, in what was Taylor’s first defense of his undisputed status, the Scotsman eked out a controversial points win over Catterall that was greeted by the public as one of the worst robberies in recent memory in British boxing. The fallout from the controversial decision compelled Taylor to drop several of his belts, save one, in order to give Catterall a rematch.
Their rematch, which had been postponed several times, was finally scheduled for March. But in January, Taylor reportedly suffered a foot injury, thus throwing the fight into doubt once again.
Not long afterward, ESPN reported that Taylor was no longer pursuing a Catterall fight but would instead defend his WBO belt against former unified lightweight titlist Teofimo Lopez June 10 at either the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden or MSG proper in New York City.
A crestfallen Catterall then turned his attention to another belt holder in Prograis.
“I think he’ll get it,” Shalom said of that matchup. “We won’t stand in the way. We want him to get what he deserves. He should be in many eyes, a unified world champion. Instead he’s been waiting around for a rematch for 12 months and never got a mandatory and the sport didn’t look after him because he didn’t win that fight on that night.”
“It looks good (negotiations),” Shalom continued. “It looks good. But, again, until—I know from Taylor-Catterall—until they’re actually in the ring, anything can happen. That’s why promoters trip over themselves all the time, they say this fights’ gonna happen, we’ve seen it a lot with AJ-Fury, this and that.
“It looks good. I think it will happen. But until—even a signed contract [is not enough]—until they’re in the ring or sitting at a press conference, it’s hard to know, but I really hope he gets that fight. I think he will.”