The Beltline: Can a fighter be crowned “Fighter of the Year” despite not officially winning a fight this year?

WANTING it, if solely to take away from my mouth the bitter style which had lingered since February, I stored ready all 12 months to see a efficiency in a British ring higher than the one Jack Catterall produced towards Josh Taylor at super-lightweight 10 months in the past. But, alas, despite my endurance, it by no means arrived.

Stuck with the style, in addition to reminiscences of how good Catterall regarded that night time in Glasgow, the sense of disappointment returned with curiosity this week after I tried to compile a listing of potential “British Fighters of the Year” for Boxing News’ first problem of 2023 and realised Catterall, in going (officially) 0-1 this 12 months, was unlikely to function on it. Not at primary. Not at quantity two. Not even at quantity 10.

Or, then once more, perhaps he might function – and perhaps he ought to function. After all, it was not Jack Catterall’s fault that what occurred occurred on that depressing February night time in Scotland. Nor, for that matter, was it Josh Taylor’s. It was boxing’s fault, that’s all. Which is to say, in no different sport will you watch an emphatic winning efficiency like the one delivered by Catterall solely to then be instructed at the finish of the efficiency that what you had in truth witnessed was a shedding efficiency. That’s a complete new sort of brainwashing; a kind of gaslighting seen solely in the most risky and poisonous of relationships.

In truth, one might argue that to look at boxing, and particularly a fight like Catterall vs. Taylor, is to primarily watch a story unfold solely to then be knowledgeable at its conclusion that what you had watched was completely completely different from what your eyes and ears had you consider you had watched. “No, sir, that was not Toy Story III,” you would possibly be instructed by an usher on the manner out of the cinema. “That was in fact The Exorcist III.”

Back in April, when needing a fight or efficiency to reignite my wavering ardour for the sport, Catterall delivered that after which some. He was, going into that title problem towards Taylor, a appreciable underdog, comparatively unproven and deemed no match for his embellished Scottish opponent; somebody whose inventory has solely soared since turning professional; somebody who had each proper to name himself Britain’s finest pound-for-pound boxer.

Indeed, a lot of the preliminary pleasure when seeing Catterall stand his floor with Taylor and provides pretty much as good as he acquired in all probability owed to this: the truth he was an underdog, the truth no one noticed it coming, the truth he was aggressive. But then, after that interval in the fight, as soon as Catterall had established his superiority (and, make no mistake, that’s exactly what he did), it turned much less of a shock to look at him go about his enterprise and extra a pleasure, a privilege. For by then it was not solely surprising, this dominance, nevertheless it had been established by the form of efficiency hardly ever seen in a British ring: one full of intelligent traps, clever motion, lovely counter-punching and, to high it off, a challenger displaying the nerve to additionally beat his opponent at his personal sport.

For me, watching from tv, it had a bit of every thing. It had every thing you wish to see in a efficiency from a purist’s level of view, in addition to sufficient drama and sufficient potential for it to all go incorrect to maintain even the casuals invested in the motion. All it wanted, in truth, when the 12 rounds had been over, was for the proper determination to be delivered and for Jack Catterall’s arm to be raised in victory. Then, and solely then, would all of us be capable of go residence joyful; joyful to have obtained affirmation that what we had simply witnessed was, in keeping with three ringside judges, the glorious boxing show we had been all sure we had witnessed.

Yet, sadly, and not for the first time in this sport, two of the three judges noticed one thing completely different that night time, which made Catterall vs. Taylor not the finest boxing show of 2022 however as a substitute, in the UK at the very least, the most egregious determination seen this calendar 12 months. Worse than that, such was the effort he put forth, and such was the magnitude of the fight and all that was at stake, this petty crime accomplished to Catterall carried a weight far better than one accomplished to a boxer competing on an undercard someplace – or, conversely, a boxer with a recognised identify and popularity whose key to a rematch would lie in the quantity of cash they may deliver to the desk. For Catterall, having waited patiently for his alternative, this was it. This was his second. His one probability. He knew, if unsuccessful, it might by no means come once more.

This feeling was exacerbated, too, by his persona – low key, quiet, unassuming – and the indisputable fact that in this day and age fighters and males like Jack Catterall are straightforward to disregard. He is not, for instance, the sort to self-praise, beat his personal drum, or kick up a fuss both when wanting a title shot or when, in that very title shot, he’s robbed blind. He is, in different phrases, the sort of fighter who suffers a setback like this after which, having proven his hazard in the fight itself, isn’t afforded one other alternative to (a) proper the incorrect or (b) beat a completely different champion for an additional belt.

The concern of this occurring to Catterall wasn’t assuaged by the Sky Sports’ group response to the verdict (which, to their credit score, was full of simply the correct amount of shock and indignation). Nor was it assuaged by Josh Taylor’s post-fight interview that night time, which, performed with feelings working excessive, was one fuelled completely by delight and stubbornness and a want to regulate a narrative he might really feel, even then, wasn’t reflecting him in the finest manner.

Josh Taylor (Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)

Thankfully, although, in time Taylor, a true champion, got here round to the thought of a rematch with Catterall. Not simply that, he has determined to remain at super-lightweight, a division he appeared determined to go away post-Catterall, and given up on the thought of making it massive in America, if solely briefly.

Phew.

This implies that whereas Catterall nonetheless doesn’t have the February win he deserves going into Christmas, nor the belts he deserves, he does at the very least have one thing: hope. He has hope that issues will be completely different second time round (with the rematch mooted for March 4, 2023) and he has hope, too, that Taylor may have been so spooked by his efficiency final time, which surprised nearly everybody, that controlling him in the rematch will be even simpler than it regarded again at the begin of 2022.

Taylor, of course, will contest that time of view. A fantastic fighter in his personal proper, he’ll insist that a lot of Catterall’s success in February – if permitting himself to concede there was any – stemmed from his personal complacency and reluctance to view Catterall beforehand as something like a risk. He was, it’s true, seen as a appreciable step down from the likes of Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez, the two males towards whom Taylor constructed his popularity at super-lightweight. He was additionally seen as somebody Taylor might familiarize yourself with, maybe early, and have a quick night time.

That this by no means occurred got here as a shock to not solely these watching the fight from afar but in addition presumably Taylor. Perhaps that’s why all he did on the night time was fight exhausting at the begin after which fight more durable when he realised preventing exhausting wasn’t sufficient. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t get his sport going till it was too late and he had, it appeared, misplaced too many of the rounds.

At any price, we’ll by no means know. Only Josh Taylor is aware of why he discovered Jack Catterall such a troublesome puzzle to resolve on February 26 and solely Josh Taylor will know deep down whether or not he believes he received the fight or not.

All I know, having watched the 12 rounds they shared 10 months in the past and having watched all the different so-called nice performances produced in British rings 12 months, is that nothing dazzled me fairly like what Jack Catterall delivered towards the odds inside the SSE Hydro. Sure, Claressa Shields schooled Savannah Marshall with typical swagger and magnificence, Joe Joyce juggernauted Joseph Parker in a show that defied logic, Tyson Fury silenced Dillian Whyte with an uppercut from hell, and Leigh Wood and Michael Conlan supplied sufficient violence to satiate the bloodthirsty. But, in phrases of pure boxing mastery, if boxing and what you’re looking at, nothing got here near topping what Jack Catterall did in 2022. Nothing.

It’s simply a crying disgrace two ringside judges had been on the lookout for one thing else. Or not taking a look at all.