By Barry Holbrook: WBO light welterweight champion Josh Taylor has suffered a foot injury, making it necessary for his March 4th rematch with Jack Catterall to be postponed until a later date.
Mike Coppinger reports that the 32-year-old former undisputed 140-lb champion Taylor suffered a plantar fascia injury to the arch of his foot and will require six to twelve weeks to recover.
For Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs), this is especially bad news because he’s been waiting eleven months for his rematch after losing a controversial 12 round split decision last year on February 26th in Glasgow, Scotland.
Assuming that Taylor will need the entire three months of recovery from the foot injury, under a best-case scenario with no setbacks, the rematch with Catterall might be prolonged until July.
Catterall will have been out of the ring for 17 months by the time the rematch with Taylor takes place, and he’ll likely be ring rusty, not at his best. That could play into Taylor’s hands because it increases his chance of winning without controversy.
Even when Taylor’s foot heals in 12 weeks, he’ll still need to go through a training camp of eight to twelve weeks. As such, we could be talking about six months before Taylor can physically enter the ring to face Catterall again.
Josh Taylor has suffered a torn plantar fascia (arch of foot) and his March 4 junior welterweight title rematch with Jack Catterall has been postponed, sources tell ESPN. Yet another postponement for this snakebitten fight. Timetable for recovery anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks.
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 21, 2023
You hate to say it, but Catterall should consider cutting his losses and moving on rather than investing any more of his valuable career waiting on Taylor to lick his wounds and come back from this injury.
When you start talking about a fighter investing more than a year waiting for a fight, it’s not good unless it’s the type of payday Gennadiy Golovkin had been waiting four years to get against Canelo Alvarez.
Unfortunately for Catterall, he will not get Canelo money fighting Josh Taylor. Hence, he should consider moving on and heading in the direction of WBC light welterweight champion Regis Prograis for his next fight.
Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) doesn’t have an opponent lined up yet for his first defense, and he’d likely be open to giving Catterall a chance at winning his belt. Fighting Catterall would allow Prograis to show the boxing world how much better he is – and always has been – than Josh Taylor.
If Prograis obliterates Catterall as he did his last opponent Jose Zepeda, boxing fans will conclude that he’s better than Taylor.
