Josh Taylor Vs. Jack Catterall: Fight prediction, undercard, odds, start time, how to watch, live stream

Undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor is set to lace up the gloves on Saturday to defend his four world championships against mandatory contender Jack Catterall at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow (2 pm ET, ESPN +). Taylor, who has been a stranger to dangerous fights in his rise to the top of the 140-pound division, is hoping this defense will help him to set up a move to welterweight and a shot at big names such as Terence Crawford and Errol Spence .

Before moving on to more prestigious fights, Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) has to handle business against WBO mandatory challenger Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs).

Catterall had earned his shot at the WBO belt when the sanctioning body ordered a fight with then-WBO and WBC champion Jose Ramirez in 2019. Instead, Ramirez would go on to instead face his WBC mandatory, Viktor Postol. Still in line for a shot at Ramirez, Catterall took step-aside money to allow Ramirez and Taylor to fight in a four-belt unification, which Taylor won by narrow unanimous decision.

Now, having waited for more than two years, Catterall gets his chance to become world champion. His patience is also rewarded in getting a rare shot at an undisputed champion.

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While the build to the fight was initially civil, little digs from Taylor over Catterall’s “shortcut” to the title as well as stating that Catterall simply wasn’t on the level of Taylor – or the men he beat to gain his four belts – – seemed to have pushed Catterall to a new level of intensity during Friday’s weigh-ins.

After the two men weighed in and Taylor marched toward Catterall for a staredown, Catterall grabbed Taylor’s throat, leading to the pair being pulled apart.

Having battled through a parade of tough opposition, including Postol, Ivan Baranchyk, Regis Prograis and Jose Carlos Ramirez, Taylor isn’t wrong that Catterall hasn’t had to walk the hardest road to get a shot at four world championships. But the champion’s focus will need to remain on the task at hand, not on completing his 140-pound resume before heading north to welterweight where potentially massive fights could materialize.

“We’ll see what happens. I can be a career 140 pounder if I want. I make the weight well, very comfortably. I’m strong at the weight, too,” Taylor told ESPN. “What’s left for me to do? There’s not much achievement left for me at light welterweight, I’ve done it all. All I can do is retain my belts and make defenses which then become mandatory after mandatory after mandatory after mandatory – I don’t get the fights that I want.

“So my goals and ambitions are to become a two-weight world champion, longer-term goals, set new goals, new targets. So I want to become a two-weight world champion and so the only way to do that would be to move up to welterweight and challenge guys like Terence Crawford, your Ugas, your Spences, things like that. And I believe I can win these fights as well. “

On the undercard, Cuban featherweight prospect Robeisy Ramirez is back when he takes on Eric Donovan in the co-feature bout. Ramirez, the former two-time Olympic gold medalist, has rebounded nicely from a defeat in his pro debut to win eight in a row. He has an even number of decisions and knockouts to his name. Plus, Nick Campbell is back in a heavyweight contest against Jay McFarlane to open the show.

Below is the complete fight card with the latest odds from Caesars Sportsbook.

Taylor Vs. Catterall card, odds

Prediction

Taylor is not wrong in his statements that Catterall has not had to compete at anywhere approaching the elite level where Taylor lives. That said, every elite fighter has to have that first true step-up fight. The problem for Catterall is that, while a talented boxer, he has never shown the kind of skills that suggest he can compete with Taylor. That said, we’ve said similar words about men like George Kambosos as they prepared to face Teofimo Lopez, and look at how that turned out. Taylor is simply better than Catterall in every area of ​​the game and it’s hard to see how Catterall can overcome all those deficits to score the shock upset. This is the kind of fight where Taylor’s attack, especially to the body, breaks down the challenger before the mid-rounds stoppage. Pick: Taylor via TKO7