By Charles Brun: Carl ‘The Cobra’ Froch says he believes that undisputed 140-lb champion Josh Taylor “deserves’ a title shot against WBO welterweight champ Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford, and he thinks ‘The Tartan Tornado’ can win that fight if he’s firing on all eight cylinders.
Crawford vs. Taylor would be an easy one to make, given that Top Rank promotes both guys.
With that said, Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) is tied up at the moment with his WBO mandatory Shawn Porter, who is expected to face him on November 20th.
If Crawford wins that fight and Taylor is victorious in his mandatory defense in December, nothing is preventing them from fighting in early 2022.
Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) and his promoter Bob Arum have been doing a lot of talking about making the fight with Crawford, but nothing has come of it.
“Josh certainly deserves to be in there with someone like Crawford,” said ‘The Cobra’ Froch to BBC Sport. “
“That’s a name that is right at the top of my pound-for-pound rankings. I don’t want to say he beats him, but he belongs in there with him.”
Instead of IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Taylor taking on Crawford, he will be defending against his WBO mandatory Jack Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs) on December 18th at The SSE Hydro, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Although Catterall is mandatory, for all intents and purposes, this is the equivalent of a voluntary defense in terms of what Taylor is up against.
Catterall isn’t a great talent, and you can argue that he should be ranked near or at the bottom of the World Boxing Organization’s top 15 rankings at 140.
I mean, there is NO way on earth that Catterall should be ranked above these high caliber fighters in the WBO’s rankings:
- Arnold Barbosa Jr
- Jose Pedraza
- Jose Zepeda
- Jose Carlos Ramirez
- Regis Prograis
- Shohjahon Ergashev
- Jeremias Nicolas Ponce
Those guys are far more talented fighters than Catterall, in my estimation, and I’m still trying to figure out what he did to deserve his #1 ranking with the WBO. It’s so very odd.
Rather than Taylor wasting time milking his four 140-lb straps, he should vacate belts when he’s forced to make useless defenses against guys that bring NOTHING to the table like Catterall.
Of course, if the idea is Taylor to milk his belts, he’s going the right thing by fighting Catterall. Other than that, no reason for Taylor to be using up his career fighting fodder that won’t increase his popularity in the sport.
Instead of Taylor facing no names like Catterall, he should be fighting these guys at 140:
- Jose Ramirez
- Regis Prograis
- Jose Zepeda
- Arnold Barboza Jr
- Shohjahon Ergashev
- Gervonta Davis
- Teofimo Lopez
“If I had to pick who would win that fight, I’d have to be honest and say Crawford, but there’s no reason Josh Taylor can’t beat him,” said Froch.
“In boxing, if you’re not firing on all cylinders and don’t put in a 100% performance, anything can happen,” said Froch.