Notebook: Undisputed champ Taylor on Catterall: 'I'm going to put him in his place'

Klitschkos fight for Ukraine; Hrgovic-Zhang and Andrade-Parker purse bid results; Quick hits; Show and tell

Feb 25, 2022

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Josh Taylor’s path to the undisputed junior welterweight championship was anything but a cake walk.

In the World Boxing Super Series semifinals he won a competitive decision over then-undefeated Ivan Baranchyk to take his world title. In the finals of the eight-man tournament Taylor scraped by Regis Prograis by majority decision in a 2019 fight of the year contender to unify belts.

After nearly a year out of the ring due to the coronavirus pandemic, Taylor returned for a mandatory defense against utterly obscure and wholly undeserving Apinun Khongsong, whom Taylor dusted in the first round. That bout may have been against a soft touch, but next up was the battle for all the belts, when Scotland’s Taylor traveled to Las Vegas last May and faced fellow two-belt titleholder Jose Ramirez in a showdown of the two best 140-pounders in the world.

It was a highly competitive fight, but Taylor, riding knockdowns in the sixth and seventh rounds, won a unanimous decision — 114-112 on all three scorecards — with the knockdowns the difference between a draw and Taylor’s glory.

Taylor had been crowed as the undisputed 140-pound champion. There have only been six male boxers to unify all the titles in the four-belt era. The others are super middleweight Canelo Alvarez (2021), who followed Taylor last fall, cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk (2018), junior welterweight Terrence Crawford (2017) and middleweights Jermain Taylor (2005) and Bernard Hopkins (2004).

With the division fully unified and any fighter’s championship dreams having to go through Taylor, he returns to action to face WBO mandatory challenger Jack Catterall in a homecoming fight. They meet at the sold-out OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday (ESPN+ in U.S., Sky Sports in U.K., 2 p.m. ET).

Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs), 31, said he is fully focused, not resting on his laurels and prepared to punish him.

“It’s Jack on Saturday. It's his turn next. He’s going to get the beating Saturday, which I’m going to dish out,” Taylor said at the final pre-fight news conference on Thursday. “All I’m thinking about is Jack Catterall. He’s trying to take away what I've worked so hard to get. I’ve cleaned out the division. He’s getting a shot at the jackpot in one fight. I’m going to put him in his place on Saturday.

“He’s good. We’ll find out on Saturday, but he’s in for a long night — a long, painful methodical beat down on Saturday. I just don’t see a way that he can beat me in this fight. I don’t know how he’s going to do it, but I’m prepared for every single way. Whatever he brings, I’m more than prepared for.”

Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs), 28, a southpaw from England, has waited very patiently for the world title opportunity, agreeing to step aside to allow the Taylor-Ramirez fight to take place for all four belts with the promise that he would get the first shot at the winner.

The wait became even longer than anticipated because the fight was originally scheduled to take place on Dec. 18 but postponed in late October after Taylor suffered a knee injury in training.

Catterall is anxious to finally get his long-awaited opportunity.

“I’ve been mandatory for the WBO title. After waiting two years, I’ve got a chance now to capture the undisputed,” Catterall said. “I’ve not just come up here to make up the numbers. I’ve been waiting two years for this opportunity.

“I think the respect has been there. Me and Josh know once the bell goes the respect is out of the window. We can shake hands after. We're going to punch each other’s heads in and that's it.”

Catterall said that as excited as he is for the fight he is also looking forward to boxing on enemy turf.

Klitschkos fight for Ukraine

Hall of Fame former heavyweight champion brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, who earlier this month enlisted in Ukraine’s reserve army to defend their country in the event of an invasion by neighboring Russia, are sticking to their word.

Vitali Klitschko, 50, who has been the mayor of Ukraine capital Kyiv since 2014 and long been a supporter of the country embracing democracy and the European Union rather than Russia, said in an interview on Thursday with British network ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” that he has “no other choice but to take up arms” following the Russian president Vladimir Putin launching an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine a day earlier.

“I will be fighting,” Klitschko said.

Wladimir Klitschko, 45, is with his brother in Kyiv and they released a video on social media soon after the invasion began in which they called for peace.

“I’m calling to all international partners to observe this tragedy that is happening nowadays in Ukraine and this senseless war that is not going to have any winners, but losers,” Wladimir said. “I just want to tell you we must stay united against this aggression, against Russian aggression. Don’t let it continue happening in Ukraine, don’t let it happen in Europe and eventually in the world. United we are strong, support Ukraine, thank you.”

Wladimir also posted a written piece Thursday on LinkedIn titled “No democracy without democrats.”

He wrote, in part, “I am writing to you from Kyiv, the capital of a country at war, a country being attacked and invaded from all sides. It is not ‘the war of Ukraine,’ it is Putin's war. Meticulous preparations were hidden behind the fog of the last few weeks in order to set in motion a plan that had been drawn up for months. No more fog and false diplomatic declarations. Now, the Russian president is using war rhetoric in the purest Bolshevik tradition and is rewriting history to justify his redivision of borders. He makes it clear that he wants to destroy the Ukrainian state and the sovereignty of its people. Words are followed by missiles and tanks. Destruction and death come upon us. That's it, blood will mix with tears.

“We must face reality and have the courage to draw the conclusions for our future and that of our children. This is a blatant violation of international law. And, if you listen carefully, this war is also talking about Europe.

“Putin wants to call into question the geopolitical balance across the whole of Europe, he dreams of being the defender of the Slavic peoples wherever they live, and he wants to restore a fallen empire whose demise he has never accepted. He looks at our continent through distorted glasses, the glasses of a fantasized glorious past. Yet this megalomania has very real implications. The European way of life is under threat, the freedom of peoples to make their own decisions is under threat, and so is democracy.

“The Ukrainian people are strong. And it will remain true to itself in this terrible ordeal. A people longing for sovereignty and peace. A people who consider the Russian people their brothers. It knows that they basically do not want this war. The Ukrainian people have chosen democracy. But: Democracy is a fragile regime. Democracy cannot defend itself; it needs the will of the citizens, the commitment of everyone. Basically, there is no democracy without democrats.

“Here, we will defend ourselves with all our might and fight for freedom and democracy.”

Matchroom wins Hrgovic-Zhang rights

Matchroom Boxing won the promotional rights to the IBF heavyweight title elimination fight between Filip Hrgovic and Zhang Zhilei in a purse bid on Thursday at the IBF offices in Springfield, New Jersey.

Matchroom Boxing, which co-promotes Hrgovic with Wasserman Boxing and also promotes Zhang, bid $650,000 to easily beat the only other offer of $410,000 from ProBox Promotions.

Hrgovic (14-0, 12 KOs), 29, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist from Croatia, is entitled to 60 percent ($390,000) of the winning bid and Zhang ($260,000) gets 20 percent.

The winner of the fight, which could land on the undercard of the rematch between three-belt titleholder Oleksandr Usyk and former titlist Anthony Joshua, which is due to take place in late May or June, would become a mandatory challenger for the Usyk-Joshua II winner.

Several fighters either turned down an opportunity to face Hrgovic or were unavailable, including Luis Ortiz, Joseph Parker, Tony Yoka, Joe Joyce, Agit Kabayel, Andy Ruiz, Murat Gassiev and Demsey McKean, before the IBF reached Zhang (23-0-1, 18 KOs), 38, a two-time Chinese Olympian and 2008 silver medalist, in its rankings and he accepted.

Warren wins Andrade-Parker rights

Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions won the promotional rights to the vacant WBO interim super middleweight title bout between middleweight titleholder Demetrius Andrade, who is moving up in weight, and Zach Parker at a purse bid on Thursday at the WBO offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Queensberry, Parker’s promoter, submitted the winning bid of $1,834,050 to beat the only other offer of $1,750,000 bid by Andrade promoter Matchroom Boxing. Queensberry gave three sites in England — London, Derby or Birmingham — and said it would tentatively put the fight on May 21.

Andrade is entitled to 65 percent of the winning bid ($1,192,132.50) and Parker gets 35 percent ($641,917.50). The minimum bid was $300,000.

Queensberry Promotions has five days to submit executed bout agreements to the WBO and the fight must take place within 90 days.

The fight will be Andrade’s second outside of the United States. He outpointed Jack Culcay in a junior middleweight title bout in Germany in 2017.

If Andrade (31-0, 19 KOs), 33, of Providence, Rhode Island, wins he will have to decide whether he wants to remain at super middleweight and vacate the middleweight title or return to 160 pounds to defend against the winner of a likely interim title bout between Janibek Alimkhanuly (11-0, 7 KOs) and Jaime Munguia (39-0, 31KOs) that is in negotiations.

Parker (22-0, 16 KOs), 27, of England, will be taking an enormous step up in competition.

Quick hits

International Boxing Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist, 10-time world titleholder in six weight classes and the biggest star of his time, has decided he will not continue pursuing a comeback after being retired since 2008. He was training for a comeback fight against MMA star Vitor Belfort scheduled for Sept. 11, but it was canceled when De La Hoya came down with Covid-19 a week beforehand. He had not seriously discussed rescheduling the fight or facing somebody else and now De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs), who turned 49 earlier this month, says he is done for good. “I can’t imagine myself in the ring anymore,” De La Hoya told BoxingScene. “I’m hanging up the gloves for sure and calling it a day.”

Former women’s featherweight titlist Heather Hard suffered a left hand injury and withdrew on Wednesday from a lightweight bout with former junior lightweight titlist Terri Harper. The fight was scheduled for the undercard of the Leigh Wood-Michael Conlan secondary featherweight title bout on March 12 (DAZN) at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England. Hardy posted photos of her badly swollen hand to social media and wrote, “I fell. Wrist is fucked and I’m out for March 12. I’m sorry Terri Harper. Hope we can reschedule.” Harper (11-1-1, 6 KOs), 25, of England, is moving up in weight following losing her title via fourth-round knockout to Alicia Baumgardner in November. Hardy (22-2, 4 KOs), 40, of Brooklyn, New York, was seeking to bounce back from back-to-back decision losses. Matchroom Boxing will look for a replacement to face Harper.

Show and tell

Iran Barkley scored a major upset when he knocked out Thomas Hearns in the third round to win the WBC middleweight title and eight months later made his first defense against another of the famed “Four Kings,” tangling with the great Roberto Duran at the convention center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Duran had a big name but he was way past his best days and had not had a significant win in years, so Barkley was the clear favorite. They put on a tremendous battle in which Duran knocked Barley down in the 11th round and claimed the well-deserved split decision. One judge scored it 116-113 for Barkley but the other two had it for Duran, 118-112 and 116-112.

Duran, who won a world title in his fourth weight class, was a champion again for the first time in six years thanks to what would be the last major victory of his career. The fight, picked as The Ring magazine fight of the year, took place on Feb. 24, 1989 — 33 years ago on Thursday. The card was also notable because it included the professional debuts of four 1988 U.S. Olympians: Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal, Ray Mercer, Kennedy McKinney and Andrew Maynard. Here is the program in my collection.

Taylor-Catterall photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Hrgovic photo: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing; Andrade photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing

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