Jack Catterall wants to get a move on with his career, Josh Taylor be damned.
Amid reports that Scotland’s Taylor, the former undisputed junior welterweight champion, is entering into an agreement to face Teofimo Lopez for Taylor’s WBO 140-pound title, Catterall has had to shift his priorities.
The southpaw from England is scheduled to return to the ring March 25 against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.
Catterall and Taylor were scheduled to face each other in early March, but it was revealed last month that Taylor had suffered a foot injury (a torn plantar fascia), thus waylaying their accursed rematch once again.
Taylor has said he needs at least six-to-eight weeks before he can start training again.
The Taylor-Catterall rematch has often been postponed, after the organizers originally planned to stage the fight last November. Taylor vacated three of his 140-pound belts to pave the way for the rematch.
Taylor defeated Catterall narrowly on points one year ago, in February, by a decision that was lampooned by many fans and media members, with some calling it one of the biggest robberies in recent memory.
Now Catterall may never get his opportunity for redress after it was reported earlier this week by ESPN’s Mike Coppinger that Taylor is looking to defend his lone WBO title against former unified lightweight champion Lopez. Both Lopez and Taylor are promoted by Top Rank. According to ESPN, Top Rank is looking to stage that fight in either late May or early June in Taylor’s backyard of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Catterall is pessimistic that he will ever get the Taylor fight.
“You know what it is, we was obviously meant to fight Josh, November, December, February, March, and I’m done waiting for it now,” Catterall told iD Boxing. “You have seen this morning the reports of Taylor-Teofimo, they’re talking about fighting. So we kind of got the March 25th date as a keep-busy, active date.
“I’m not convinced the Josh fight is going to happen now. He’s pulled out more than once.”
Catterall does not sound as if he is about to lose any sleep over the Taylor rematch. The 29-year-old mentioned Regis Prograis, the WBC titlist from New Orleans, as his top priority. The feeling is mutual: Prograis has mentioned Catterall as somebody he would be interested in fighting.
“It’s a difficult position to be in,” Catterall said of his situation. “I wanted the Josh fight. I believe I beat Josh and it would have been nice to put that to bed. That’s out of the question now. I want the biggest fights possible. I talked about it the last couple of weeks. I want the biggest fights possible.
“I want the Regis Prograis fight. In my opinion, we both beat Josh, so we have that in common. And it’s an easy fight to be made. That’s the fight that I want now. Regis is up for the fight and it’s a great fight. We’ll see how it unfolds [in] the next couple of weeks.”