Jack Catterall Won Clearly vs Josh Taylor

Yup

 

It was more competitive than the first fight but yeah it wasn't close. I had it 116-112.

Taylor did very little in the first half of the fight but march forward and take shots. The real difference was the quality of the shots, Catterall was simply landing cleaner, harder punches often in combination which were bothering Taylor while Taylor was sporadic landing single shots here and there, mainly to the body which would pay dividends later in the fight.

The 2nd half of the fight was a different fight, Taylor woke up and upped his work rate. He averaged 36 punches a round in the first 6 rounds but averaged 46 punches a round in the last 6 rounds. That increase in tempo changed the fight and he swept rounds 6-9 on my card.

Catterall was clearly struggling at this stage, taking big gulps of air, was fighting Taylor kind of up close, war of attrition type fight. But he dug deep and won the 10th. Taylor was winning the 11th but then walked into a massive left hand and almost went down and lost that round for me as he was seriously hurt. Taylor won the 12th showing real heart to recover from the 11th but he needed the KO.

I don't buy that Taylor is drained at 140, he finished very strongly which drained fighters don't do. He may have cut corners in previous fights but he's never failed to make weight and after their first fight chose to stay at 140 because that's still his best weight. He could have demanded this be at 147 but can still make the weight fine. I also don't buy that Taylor is shot, maybe a little past his best, but what I saw as the same Taylor I've always seen, a fighter with solid technique but who doesn't counter much, doesn't move his head, isn't effective from range despite height and reach advantages and who uses his size to physically grind down fighters at mid and close range. He gives up his height and reach and fights small and is aggressive, against a counter puncher who is best at range he's simply at a stylistic disadvantage, prime Taylor still loses to Catterall.

 

I had 115 - 113 with a rd close enough for it to have become 116 - 112. Anything else is like saying Fury won.

 

I think you are right that he might fade in fights. The way he unravelled was kind of surprising and while Taylor was working the body, he wasn't having so much success their that it should have effected Catterall that early. Catterall needs to work on his conditioning or go back to what he did in the first fight and clinch or push Taylor off. He seemed to not do that in this fight, preferring to fire back. I guess after the first fights scoring he wanted to be more aggressive and be more active to avoid being robbed again.

 

I think they're both dreadful.