Even at 92 years old, Bob Arum still has some fire in him.
The legendary boxing promoter came in on Saturday after his boxer Josh Taylor lost a rematch with Jack Catterall by unanimous decision. The first meeting of the light welterweights was highly controversial, with Taylor winning via split decision, despite many observers scoring otherwise.
Saturday’s fight in Leeds, England, also went to the scorecards, with Catterall emerging the winner by unanimous decision (117-113, 117-113, 116-113). The fight was all early for Catterall, but Taylor fought back to such an extent that some expected the scores to be close.
Arum apparently thought Taylor was the winner, and was so angry that all three judges made him lose by at least three points instead. He promised never to bring an American to the country:
Here is Arum’s response, which was greeted with boos by the English crowd:
“I saw the fight just like everyone else. Those scorecards were a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. I really feel sorry for Josh, I thought he won the fight, but those scorecards were ridiculous. And that’s the lesson, I will never, never do.” get an American fighter over here with this British board scoring the fight.
As for allowing an American fighter to fight through ‘the British administration’, it’s probably worth noting that Taylor is Scottish.
Taylor also expressed belief that he narrowly won the fight, but conceded the loss before calling for a trilogy fight:
I thought it was a great fight, fair game to Jack. It was the better fight tonight, it was better than the first fight, it was great, but listen, I thought I just stole the fight to be honest. I thought I just stole it. It was a close fight, but given the controversy in the first fight, I think that probably played into the judges’ hands.
Fair play to Jack, he won the fight. Let’s do a third one.
Taylor had already lost the final portions of his undisputed light-welterweight title to Teofimo Lopez last June. His rematch against Catterall presented an opportunity to answer the biggest remaining question of his unbeaten run, until Catterall came out swinging.
In any case, the scorecards agreed that Catterall won the first, second, fourth, fifth and eleventh rounds, while all three judges had Taylor winning the seventh. Every other round there is a disagreement, including a one-card tie in the sixth round.
CompuBox saw the fight a little closer than the scores indicated, with Catterall beating Taylor 176-162 in total punches, but Taylor winning 102-88 in power punches.
