Josh Taylor has demanded a rematch with Jack Catterall and urged the English boxer to ‘get his finger out’ and make the fight happen.
Taylor won a controversial split decision against Catterall back in March to retain his undisputed super lightweight world champion status. Judges scored the bout 113-112 for Catterall and 113-112 and 114-111 for Taylor. However, many watching on felt the Prestonpans fighter was fortunate not to lose his crown. Judge Ian John Lewis was downgraded by the British Boxing Board of Control for his wide card.
Taylor admits he had issues going into the fight, but gave a brutally honest assessment of his own performance. But he’s adamant Catterall can't cope with him at his best and has warned him he won’t wait around forever on a rematch. “Camp wasn’t great, but it’s not an excuse,” Taylor told IFLTV. “At the end of the day, I was ‘s***e’. A career-worst performance and Catterall had a good performance. I’m still getting s**t for it, but I still feel that I did enough to win the fight.
“But having said that, there were a lot of rounds in there that could’ve gone his way. If it had went to him, then obviously I’d have been gutted at losing my titles, but I genuinely feel that I did enough to win the fight. But going back to it, I was f*****g s**t. I came in too heavy, a bit unmotivated and that’s what led to a c**p performance.
“I want to be in fights that give me the motivation and the drive, because if I’ve not got the motivation and drive, you can see what happened there. I didn’t do it right. If I'm staying at 140, then the fight I really want is the Catterall fight. That’s the reason I’m staying at the weight. Now these two mandatories are out the way, it’s cleared the path so it's on his side.
“I’ve not had any response yet. I’ve done all I can do but at the same time, I'm not going to wait around. I’m at the good part of my career where I want to be involved in big fights, so I'm not going to pause or put my career on hold to wait on him.
“But 100 per cent, I want that fight again. Revisit it, put to to bed and shut everybody up. That’s what I want to do. If it's not next, which is what I really want, I’ll do it at some point down the line, although if it is down the line, it won’t be at 140.
“I know I’m 100 per cent better than that. I know me at my best, on peak performance, he doesn't live with me. We’ll just need to wait and see.
“The first fight was s**t - the two of us were s**t to be honest. It’s the one I want to do next for myself and to shut everyone else up.”
When asked if he had a final message for Catterall, Taylor replied: “F**k all. Get your finger out your a**e mate and hopefully we can get the fight on.”
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