Taylor v Catterall 2, 27th April, Leeds

After he moved to London I remember him posting a video, shirtless and clearly overweight, hitting the bag (punchbag). He posted a picture of him flexing with a sword, no muscle definition, he commented saying that he'd been eating too many sweets etc. Now you can do that to a certain degree if you're in the slackers division (Heavyweight) and have no gruelling cuts to make but if you're fighting at 140 you have to live the life to stay at the stop. Boxing history is full of guys who needed to live the life to stay at the top given the weights they're at, No Mas would have never happened if Duran wasn't such an ill disciplined party boy, not even so much that, just careless. Moving to London, getting with Davison, getting complacent, it's derailed Taylor's career and I don't he'll significantly come back from that, for me he's pretty much done, boxing moves to slow for him to go on a really good run and cement himself as one of the greats. Just like that, he's blown it.

 

His hunger left him when he became a great and won all 4 belts in his division.

As you post, one body, short career and any abuse simply shortens life at the top.

Sadly fighters at the level of Catterall or even worse will have a very good chance of beating him now.

Taylor is done for me as well.

 

Taylor will be in the Hall of Fame and is a genuine British legend cleaning out a very tough division in only 16 fights including away from home.

There will be very few UK fighters capable of achieving such greatness and I find it strange that this elite fighter's achievements are not given huge recognition that is well deserved.

 

Because he’s an unlikeable mouthy Scot that doesn’t try to market himself as anything else. There will always be a following for him but outside Scotland he’s just not going to be a big name. Back in the day Chisora was right that he was basically the big name on Taylor’s fight against Prograis.

Shame he didn’t do the Olympics because that might have changed things for him but would have cost 2 more years on the career.

He should get hall of fame for destroying Ohara Davies on free TV. Unforgettable.

 

I find it hard to stomach the lack of fame and wealth considering his achievements in the ring at elite level.

Bang average non elite fighters like Chisora, Whyte and Joshua have racked up the loot and fame yet not an elite win between them.

 

Good points, agree with most of that.

 

In fairness, if he wasn’t such a monumental dick head after the first Catterall fight, I don’t think he’d be criticised anywhere near as much as he is now.

The whole world knows he lost that fight, and I do understand a fighters pride + Adrenalin post fight can lead to nonsense interviews and comments, but when the dust settled, even if he came out and said “I felt I won, but I understand people saying otherwise”, or that “he got away with one” and even gave Jack just a modicum of credit, I still think he’d be largely supported. I was a massive fan of his going into the fight and I’m a Manc, and would have been ok seeing him beat Catterall and go on and dominate the sport, but he just became a bitter, sour ***** from there on in.

I’ll be in Leeds for the rematch and I hope Catterall ends him.

 

Channel 5 is not free

He was a monumental dick since first day of career lol Also, if you think the whole world knows he lost this fight, you should ask ash234 if you think he lost... lol

 

I think I'm going to go to the Edinburgh one, seeing Sam Jones squirm in his chair first hand is too much to turn down

 

Many refuse to pay the TV Licence these days and court enforcement is not happening.

The Jimmy Saville turn a blind eye club are worried about a judgement being reached giving the viewer the choice to turn off the BBC.

 

Yes, that still doesn't make it free. Many refuse to pay for X by committing theft. Doesn't mean it's free.

I hope you are not advocating theft. Not good.

 

It's amazing how quickly Taylor's career has nosedived. His career is effectively on the line in this fight now in my eyes. I don't see where he goes after or how he comes back against a defeat to Caterall. If he wins he can put the first fight down to a bad night at the office, and there's no shame in losing to Teofimo so Taylor can be in a pretty solid position with a win but I don't think he'll go on to be the top dog again at 140 or 147, I think his best days are definitely behind him but that doesn't mean there aren't more good fights we could see him in. I'd personally love to see him batter Connor Benn in a big domestic fight at 147. That's if he can beat Caterall first which I'm seeing as a bit of a 50/50. I could see that going either way or possibly even a draw. It will probably be another horrible fight to watch as most of Caterall's fights are.