Scandals & Feuds ·
A Judge Downgraded, a Decision Unchanged
After Josh Taylor’s disputed 2022 win over Jack Catterall, the British Boxing Board of Control took issue with one scorecard’s margin. Catterall’s trainer said its response was not enough.
Jack Catterall knocked Josh Taylor down in the eighth round in Glasgow on 26 February 2022. After 12 rounds, two judges gave the fight to Taylor, who retained his undisputed super-lightweight titles. The British Boxing Board of Control’s subsequent review brought a downgrade for one judge over the margin of his scorecard, but no change to the result.
Howard Foster scored the contest 113–112 for Catterall; Victor Loughlin had it 113–112 for Taylor. Ian John-Lewis gave Taylor the wider margin, 114–111. Both fighters had been deducted a point. A large majority of ringside analysts, according to Sky Sports, believed Catterall had done enough to win. Taylor disagreed: “The right man won the fight.” He acknowledged a hesitant start but said he had taken over in the second half.
Catterall had previously stepped aside to allow Taylor to unify the division. He arrived for his title challenge unbeaten in 26 fights, then left without speaking to the media. The following day, he wrote on Instagram about what he believed the decision had cost him: “I did all of this for my family, my team, my town and country. My baby girl and missus, our future. For what? Boxing shame on you. Judges. Dreams stolen.”
On 28 February, the Board confirmed that it would investigate the scoring. Its general secretary, Robert Smith, told The Telegraph that he had requested reports from the judges. He described the bout as close and scrappy while offering his own assessment: “I was there, and I thought Catterall pipped it.” He also rejected allegations of corruption as “nonsense”. “Our judges are honest people, and scored it as they saw it,” he said.
The Board’s response, reported on 11 March, focused on John-Lewis. After an internal review of all three judges’ scoring, its stewards called him to explain his card. Having considered that explanation, they downgraded him from an A Star Class to an A Class official. The Board said it was satisfied that his scorecard “did not affect the overall result of the contest”, but that the stewards “did have issue with his margin”.
Catterall’s trainer, Jamie Moore, challenged that distinction. “They say that they don’t disagree with his scoring because it didn’t affect the decision which is nonsense because it was a split decision,” he told BT Sport. “So obviously his scoring directly affected the scoring of the fight.”
The Board also contacted the WBO, WBC, IBF and WBA to support Catterall being made mandatory challenger by each or all of those championship bodies. That was support for another title opportunity, not an award of the belts. Moore called the response inadequate: “They are just passing on the blame.”
A rematch was another point of dispute. After the fight, Taylor said he saw no need for one and intended to move from the 140-pound division to welterweight. By March, he was open to fighting Catterall again, but most likely at a catchweight. “I can’t make the weight anymore safely, I don’t think,” he said.
Moore said a direct world-title shot, if Taylor gave up the belts, would be a consolation for Catterall. But his objection went beyond the next opportunity: “The sickening thing is that he will never get that moment back.”