The British Boxing Board of Control will investigate the scoring of Josh Taylor’s title defence against Jack Catterall, it has confirmed.
Scotland’s Taylor retained his super-lightweight belts on Saturday with a controversial split-decision win against his English challenger in Glasgow.
Despite the statistics heavily favouring Catterall, it was Taylor who emerged the winner with 113-112 and 114-111 scorecards in his favour – with the third judge scoring the bout 113-112 to Catterall.
Victor Loughlin was the judge to score the bout 113-112 to Taylor, while Ian John-Lewis produced the most controversial scorecard of 114-111 in favour of the Scot. Howard Foster was the only judge who favoured Catterall.
A number of boxers and pundits have joined fans in condemning the result, which saw 31-year-old Taylor remain unbeaten at 19-0 (13 knockouts).
Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs), meanwhile, saw his undefeated run end with the loss.
“You know what hurts the most?” the Chorley fighter wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “It wasn’t for me. I done all of this for my family, my team, my town and country. My baby girl and Mrs, our future.
“Today I should have been waking up with all of the belts. Fifteen months out the ring, they all wrote me off. F****d me in every way possible for over two years, finally got the fight.
“Sacrificed everything to fight one of the top [pound-for-pound] ranked fighters, gave him a lesson.
“For what? Judges... Dreams stolen.”
Catterall had last fought in November 2020 before his bout with Taylor, stepping aside – without monetary compensation, he said – to allow the Scot to unify all the belts last May. Taylor did so by outpointing Jose Carlos Ramirez in Las Vegas.
The 31-year-old is now expected to move up to welterweight, potentially vacating the super-lightweight titles in the process.
