Josh James William Taylor vs. Jack Catterall & Robeisy Ramirez vs. Eric Donovan RBR.

I don't usually put a hell of a lot of faith in Compubox, even though I exploit it frequently. But they certainly have the same issues the rest of us do when it comes to counting all of the landed punches in incredibly hard to process ugly rounds where guys are missing shots by millimeters. They tend to be not that far off, that being said... if you got it wrong and if I got it wrong initially. Which is debatable, because I don't think we did. Why must boxing judges who are sitting ringside that don't have access to the angles we do due to the television cameras? Also, they don't have the benefit of instant replay, they've just got to sit there and judge it how they see it from their seat at ringside. One time... they don't get a do over, and they certainly aren't privy to slomo replays of entire rounds. The rounds were close, so they went to the aggressor. It is what it is. So sometimes you have to take the bigger overarching picture of a round into consideration.

Also, to push back against this narrative a little, the 11th round Catterall did nothing, most of his connects came in the last 12 seconds and certainly none of them were devastating. You cannot ignore the ring generalship aspect. Taylor clearly won in that department. Was the aggression effective? Maybe not, but Jack certainly was reacting poorly and fighting negatively. Taylor dictated the pace and the few shots he landed, were better. Also the docked point was ridiculous. The defense was solid from both men, neither really landed much flush. Also, the shots to the back from Taylor, Compubox didn't count them, but in the moment, many certainly looked like rib shots, especially from a different angle. They were back/rib borderline and they certainly did damage. So should a judge ignore them?


As far as the 12th goes, Taylor came out, pressed the pace, Jack's jabs were not landing, most of Taylor's shots, while blocked partially, he consistently thumped him with them and while they may have grazed the top of his head, or landed on the arms that Jack was blocking his stomach with. The judges cannot always see if those are clean connects. Also, the looping rights, while Jack grabbed and held most of them, they connected as slaps. A lot more of those back/rib borderline shots. Jack was negative throughout, held excessively. While most of Taylor's shots were power shots, they were making contact, either to the shoulder, arms, or bouncing off the shoulders and Josh's forearms and wrists were grazing the side and top of his head. When in hold, Taylor would smack him with little inside hooks to the head, while Jack wrestled, which then gave the impression when Taylor outmuscled him, that he was losing the grappling battle, again... dictating the pace. Giving the appearance he was bossing him. Most of Jack's jabs were falling short and on the backfoot and more visibly apparent, while Josh's were as well, he was coming forward, and they making contact with something, making the misses less apparent. When Josh missed, you could barely notice, when Jack missed, he missed big. Then in the last minute... the four punch combo Jack threw, he landed one shot. Then Taylor immediately looking like he was in control, backed him to the ropes, and they roughhoused. Also, count the punches landed, Compubox was off, I counted at least 7 landed punches from Taylor, certainly a hell of a lot more than 3. Then when you add in the clubbing shots and back/rib shots. All while in retreat. Then compare that to the two or three clean shots from Jack. It's easy to see why most had it for Taylor. Because he won it. Go back and give those two a rewatch, dare I say... watch them in slo-mo. The punch stat people got that one wrong.

 

@IntentionalButt I'm still eagerly awaiting your Standalone RBR for this one. I had it 113-112 Taylor, Professor had it 113-112 Catterall. We don't understand what all the fuss is about.