The Sore Loser Olympics: Bob Arum Takes Gold
Josh Taylor’s promoter, Bob Arum, went into full meltdown moments after the scores were announced, giving Jack Catterall (29-1, 13 KOs) a lopsided twelve round unanimous decision in their light welterweight rematch on Saturday night at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England.
Catterall made Taylor look like a rank amateur tonight, and it was hard to watch the Scottish fighter made to look so purely awful.
Arum went full-on sore loser mode, ranting about the scores by the three judges, who gave it to Catterall by the scores 117-111, 116-113, and 117-111. I was having flashbacks to how Anthony Joshua grabbed the mic and started talking all kinds of mess following his second defeat against Oleksandr Usyk.
Arum’s Sour Grapes
“Those scorecards were a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. I really feel sorry for Josh, I thought he won the fight. Those scorecards were ridiculous. I will never, ever allow an American fighter to come here with the British Board scoring the fight. Those scores were ridiculous.”
Instead of blaming the judges, Arum should take a good hard look at Taylor and realize where he’s at with his career. He ain’t the same fighter. So it’s now to the point where he’s getting beaten by everyone. Taylor’s last fight against Teofimo Lopez was far, far worse, and it was pure embarrassment.
Tonight, Taylor looked good in comparison, and that’s saying a lot because he looked like a textbook version of an over-the-hill fighter.
The Catterall Clinic: A Masterclass in Boxing
I don’t see what the problem was. It looked like a pure schooling by Catterall, dominating the wash-looking 33-year-old Taylor every round of the fight, making him miss and jabbing his head off.
The only thing that made some of the rounds hard to score was Catterall’s holding. He looked like a carbon copy of Devin Haney with the way he attached himself to Taylor every time he got in close to throw a punch.
I don’t blame Catterall for holding. He doesn’t have much power, so he had to do something to keep Taylor from hammering him with his shots.
It’s the referee’s job to control the holding, and he was fine with Catterall holding to neutralize Taylor’s offense the entire fight, so what are you doing to do? It was boring but effective.
