By Allan Fox: Carl Frampton says he was “annoyed” watching undisputed light welterweight champion Josh Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs) beating his WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs) by an unpopular 12 round split decision last Saturday night.
The judges gave the hometown boy Taylor the victory by the scores 114-111, 113-112 for Josh, and 113-112 for Catterall.
The recently retired former two-division world champion Frampton believes that Catterall, 28, deserved the win. He says the boxing fans at ringside at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland agreed with him. They felt that Catterall deserved to have his hand raised at the end.
Taylor got away with a lot of punching to the back of the head in the fight without being penalized by the referee Marcus McDonnell.
Although Taylor, 31, was eventually docked a point for hitting Catterall after the bell ending the 11th round, he got away with many rabbit punches without being penalized.
Frampton had Catterall winning
“I thought Jack Catterall won the fight, and I was asking everyone at ringside, and they all thought Jack won the fight,” said Carl Frampton to Pro Boxing Fans on last Saturday’s Taylor vs. Catterall clash in Glasgow.
“I want to make it clear that I’m good friends with Jack and Joshua, but I always want to be honest,” Frampton stated. “I try to score a fight from a neutral perspective, and I don’t see a way that a judge gives that to Jack if I’m being honest.
“I don’t think the referee had control of the fight. There were two point deductions, and I don’t think either of them was warranted, if I’m being honest. It was almost like, ‘I’m going to give him a deduction, and I’m going to give you a deduction.’
“It’s just this f*** game. You get sick of it, do you know what I mean? I love Josh. I’m going to his wedding, by the way. Hopefully, I still am, but you have to be fair, and the wrong man got his hand raised,” Frampton said.
It’s pretty clear now that the boxing world had Catterall winning last Saturday night, and Taylor was given a victory fighting on the home turf that he didn’t deserve.
The real downside of all this is that Catterall could have made life-changing money had he been given the win. We’re talking millions potentially of future earnings that Catterall will be missing out on, thanks to his questionable defeat against Taylor.
For a fighter like Catterall, that has been slogging away for years without getting a taste of the millions; it’s got to be a disappointment.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that Catterall will ever get an opportunity like this again. Once Taylor vacates his four titles, they’ll be fragmented, and Catterall will need to battle one of these killers for ONE of the vacated titles:
- Jose Zepeda
- Regis Prograis
- Jose Ramirez
- Subriel Matias
- Shohjahon Ergashev
- Montana Love
- Teofimo Lopez Jr
- Arnold Barboza Jr
As good as Catterall looked against Taylor last Saturday night, it’s questionable whether he could beat any of the above fighters for Josh’s vacated titles once he gives them up.
Carl predicted a competitive fight
“I knew it was going to be a competitive fight, and going into it, I was saying to everybody that it was ‘going to be competitive. Josh is the favorite and deservedly so, and Josh should win the fight.’ But Jack won the fight for me,” Frampton continued.
“Jack was really cute and had a good jab, and distance control was good with Josh. I felt like Josh was getting frustrated at times and trying to get too close.
“Some of his best work was actually done up close. But Jack was really cute with his shoulder and on the inside, doing Roberto Duran-type stuff, getting away with dirty stuff that you shouldn’t get away with.
“I’m just annoyed, I’m annoyed. Going into this fight, I said I was going to be happy with whoever won the fight, and I’m going to be disappointed with whoever lost the fight.
“I’m standing here saying, ‘What the f***k!’ I haven’t seen anyone at ringside thinking that Jack didn’t win that fight,” Frampton said of his view that Catterall had done enough to rate the win. This game is s*** at times,” said Frampton.
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to Frampton that Taylor got the win over Catterall because he was fighting at home in Scotland in front of his boxing fans.
Anytime you get a famous fighter competing in front of a large crowd of supporters, the judges unconsciously give rounds to that guy based on crowd noise.
Ideally, the judges need to be in a sound-proof booth so they can’t hear the crowd, and their vision should be limited to just the ring.
If they can see the fans at ringside jumping around each time the hometown fighter lands a shot, they might be influenced by their reactions.
Finally, there needs to be the accountability with judges regarding being rated on their performances. Like in the military, you’re given pros and cons when evaluated for promotion.
If you’re not showing leadership and if you’re messing up, your career goes nowhere.
Judges need to be evaluated and removed if they’re rated poorly and not doing their job at an optimal level.
Taylor will move up to 147
“I think Josh will probably move up [to 140],” said Carl. “You could see that he was struggling a little bit at light welter. He’s a big light welter, and he’d probably move up to welterweight.
“There are huge fights at welterweight, but hopefully, people see the good that Jack Catterall has done.
“If Josh does vacate the titles, Jack gets a stab at fighting for one of those vacated titles because he deserves it, he absolutely deserves it,” said Frampton about his hope that Catterall gets a chance to fight for one of the 140-lb titles when Taylor vacates them.
It would be best for Taylor, 31, to try and get the biggest money fight available at 147, be it WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, Keith Thurman, or the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas winner.
If Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) is the best that Taylor can get at 147, so be it. What Taylor can’t afford is to hang around at welterweight and find himself needing to beat one of the talented young contenders like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, Vergil Ortiz Jr., or Conor Benn and falling apart against them.
After watching Taylor struggle in three of his last four fights against Catterall, Jose Ramirez, and Regis Prograis, it’s unlikely he would beat Ennis, Vergil Jr, Thurman, Benn, or David Avanesyan.
