Josh Taylor: I scored Jack Catterall fight… and I narrowly won! | Boxing News

Josh Taylor has revealed he scored his super-lightweight title fight with Jack Catterall himself – and still believes that he deserved a narrow victory from their controversial clash.

Taylor retained his belts with a split decision in February, which sparked heated debate and an investigation by the British Boxing Board of Control.

Ian John-Lewis, a judge who scored in the Scotsman’s favour, was downgraded by the BBBofC, but Taylor insists his performance merited a narrow victory after he watched the fight back.

“I am still of the opinion that I did just enough to the win the fight,” he told Sky Sports News.

“I have watched it back a few times now and my first impressions when I watched the fight back is that it was a very close fight and it could have gone either way.

“I personally scored the fight 113-112 to myself, but I can see why a lot of people thought Jack won because there were a lot of rounds in there that could have gone either way, you could have scored it for Jack or for myself, a lot of swing rounds.

“So if it had been a draw it would have been a fair result, if it had gone to Jack by a point or two I wouldn’t have grumbled, either.

“Obviously I would have been gutted if I had lost my titles, but it is what it is. It is one of those fights that could have gone either way and I came away with a victory on a judges split decision.

“It turns out I got the win and I felt that I did enough to win as well.”

Although he believes the fight was a close one to call, Taylor was unimpressed with his own performance in the ring, but admits he still was dealing with the after effects of cutting weight.

He does believe, however, that the fight was one of Catterall’s best performances.

​​​​​​”I thought I did well to push Jack up and land the bigger shots, heavier shots and push him and put him on the back foot,” Taylor said.

“But in terms of my own performance, I thought it was a really bad performance for myself, way below par. I couldn’t really get going and I think the weight cut had a massive impact on my performance and my legs felt slow

“Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon that I was well beat, but Jack came and he gave his best performance and I gave a well below-par performance.

“But fair play to Jack, he came and he put up a great fight and fought his heart out.”

A rematch on the cards?

Although Taylor would love an immediate rematch with Catterall, it is not something he can commit to if he wants to retain his belts.

He does, however, want the match-up to happen down the line as he looks to regain his authority as undisputed champion.

Taylor said: “Moving forward, I would like to have a rematch with him and put it right and prove I am the best in the division but I can’t do that next as the WBA have already ordered my mandatory defence against a guy from Puerto Rico.

“Then after that it would be the WBC then the WBO, so it becomes mandatory fight after mandatory fight.

“It is near enough impossible for me to give Jack the immediate rematch because these mandatories are all coming in and if I don’t do them, I will be stripped of titles.

“I would like to do that to put it right and to put my authority back that I am the best in the division, but it is proving very difficult.”