Boxing will eat itself
QUICK THOUGHTS: The fact that boxing is seen as incapable of getting its own house in order is a major issue
Welcome to Double Dutch Boxing, a boxing newsletter from Jake Lawton. In this bonus edition of the newsletter, some thoughts on the fallout from the highly controversial result of Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall’s undisputed title fight from last weekend in Glasgow, and the lack of faith it has demonstrated in the stewards of the sport.
If you’re here for the first time, you can subscribe below to receive every edition direct to your inbox, and you can also get in touch by replying to this email. Thanks for reading.
With everything that has been going on recently, I didn’t even register fully that Double Dutch has just celebrated its first birthday - thanks to those who reminded me. I guess for my subconscious it just didn’t seem that important in the context of the current state of the world - but I’d still like to thank everyone who has read, liked, shared, emailed, messaged or been involved in any way over the last twelve months. It is very much appreciated.
Of course, these are far more important things to worry about right now. This is a very scary time for the world, but especially for the brave and heroic people of Ukraine. Boxing fans will have seen the images of Kyiv mayor Vitali and his brother Vladimir Klitschko, Oleksandr Usyk and Vasyl Lomachenko remaining in their country to fight, with other past and present boxers doing the same. Ukrainian people as a whole have shown, and continue to show, unbelievable courage in the face of unspeakable brutality. If you want to support them in any way, may I humbly point you towards this list of charities supporting Ukraine. Life goes on as normally as it can for the rest of us, but thoughts very much remain with the people of Kyiv, Kharkiv and beyond.
Perception is reality
QUICK THOUGHTS
Jack Catterall shocked the boxing world. He should, by all rights, be the new undisputed light welterweight champion of the world. But he’s not…and that is difficult to justify.
Going into the bout with Josh Taylor, undefeated at 18-0 and the reigning WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA title holder, Catterall was a massive underdog for a fight taking place in front of a hostile sold-out Glasgow crowd. It was a tall order. Odds of 1/12 for Taylor demonstrated the confidence most had that this was a victory in waiting for ‘The Tartan Tornado’. Looking at the evidence, you had to agree with them - Catterall had never fought at this level, and Taylor had been beating world-class operators for years.
But Jack confounded the critics for large portions of the fight, seeming to sweep the early rounds and knocking down the much-vaunted Taylor in the eighth. Josh recovered admirably in the later rounds after being dropped, and Catterall perhaps did not press the issue in the championship rounds. I can see that thought process, but still this one appeared pretty clear cut when it came time for the decision. Catterall had outlanded Taylor across the duration, and the fact that both men had been deducted a point nullified any refereeing influence.
In the moments after the end of the twelfth round on Saturday night, general opinion was that Jack had clearly done enough. This was certainly not the best version of Taylor, but whatever the case judged purely on the previous twelve rounds the 7/1 underdog Catterall looked to have pulled it off.
What should have been a classic upset moment, however, and one which demonstrated the unique unpredictability of boxing, instead threw up numerous questions about how the sport is being governed.
Two judges awarded the bout to Taylor (a difficult to quantify 114-111 from Ian John-Lewis, and 113-112 by Victor Loughlin), with one preferring Catterall (113-112 from Howard Foster). There was a sense of palpable shock when the result was announced. Josh Taylor retained his titles by the finest of margins.
For what it’s worth, when I watched the fight back I scored it 114-111 for Catterall. I don’t see it as the ‘biggest robbery in British boxing history’ as some have labelled it, perhaps in part thanks to bitter experience of seeing so many, but Jack clearly won the fight - and the reaction in the days since has demonstrated how negative the general perception of boxing’s governance really is.
BOXXER’s Ben Shalom, who promoted the show in conjunction with Top Rank, did not mince his words in the aftermath. Whatever your opinion of Shalom, you have to respect the total honesty he displayed in calling out what he saw as a clear injustice…
“I was worried they might call a draw and stop Jack having this historic night. But the way that this has gone, I’m in shock right now. I’m shellshocked. There has to be an inquest, because I’ve seen this on other promoters’ shows and I’ve sort of maybe laid the blame with them or not understood what’s gone on. But this is embarrassing and if there’s not an inquest it’s going to harm the sport. We are going to do everything we can because I’m not just embarrassed, I’m really angry. How many times do we have to be here before something is done? The fact is, I was stood there and worried it might happen, which says a lot. And it did.”
Shalom is a newcomer to promoting and therefore won’t be as jaded as his more experienced counterparts, who will have seen this all before, but his viewpoint reflected a large outpouring of anger.
This outpouring has transcended boxing. Jack Catterall’s local MP, who is also the Speaker of the House of Commons, even felt compelled to publicly state his disgust at the decision.
Who knows if speaking to the Sports minister will go anywhere. A full-blown Westminster inquiry into the state of British boxing could dredge up all sorts of wreckage, but I won’t hold my breath for that one.
The British Boxing Board of Control’s chief Robert Smith has done the rounds in the last few days and gave a statement (if you can call it that) to confirm that an investigation will take place…
Smith has also already stated any suggestion of corruption is “nonsense”. Now I’m not extolling the virtues of any major conspiracy theory, but perhaps Robert should wait until the investigation has taken place before deciding what is and isn’t nonsense.
There was a time when British fight fans would maintain an air of superiority, stating that “you’ll need to get a knockout in (insert country’s name here) to force a draw” when a UK boxer fought away from home. All of the evidence, however, denotes that British officiating and judging is amongst the worst in the world. Our right to take the moral high ground in any way was lost a long time ago, and the British Boxing Board of Control seem unable (or unwilling) to do much to correct it.
The BBBofC has been criticised for being an unaccountable closed shop for years, and the events of the last week certainly have not helped their public perception.
Do we really have any faith that the BBBofC’s investigation will really deliver anything meaningful? No, we don’t, as there is absolutely no historical evidence to demonstrate that wrongs are righted in this most shadowy of sports. When the very institution which appears to be intrinsic to problems is investigating its own mistakes, it’s difficult to see what we can really expect to happen. Who watches the Watchmen indeed.
I spoke to a few friends who are not boxing obsessives after the result was announced. They’ve never been on BoxRec and they don’t subscribe to DAZN, but they are genuine sports fans and they watched the fight live on Sky Sports. They also represent the audience boxing needs to not alienate. Every one of them was angry, not just at the result but the sport more generally - their opinion was that this was what happens in boxing, and their cynicism was palpable. This was not an isolated case, a misnomer that happens occasionally, this was for them indicative of a sport that is corrupt to the very core.
There are so many other forms of sport, let alone entertainment, for them to fill their time going forward, and they might not see the point in paying too much heed to something that so often delivers patently unfair results.
Whether through some level of corruption or just sheer incompetence, the custodians of boxing are pushing at least some of the audience away.
Shalom has given interviews this week intimating that the matter is, for him, not closed. Taylor has already stated that he will be moving up to welterweight, as he perhaps should have done after the Ramirez fight, and Catterall will undoubtedly get another world title fight down the line - but it won’t be for an undisputed opportunity on such a major stage. You have to feel sympathy for Jack and his trainer Jamie Moore.
Boxing is a sport in which the results are often subjective - judging a fight, especially one fought at a high level with a rabid partisan crowd, isn’t always easy. The current system for scoring allows a large amount of room for interpretation.
The 10-point must system gives the judges the opportunity to score each round objectively based on who they saw as being the ‘winner’ of that three, or two in the case of the female code, minute stretch. The judges are specifically looking at four things when determining which fighter won each round…
Effective aggression
Successful defence
Clean punches landed
Ring generalship
A number of other elements can impact a fight - knockdowns automatically take a point from the round for the victim, referees can take points off at their own discretion for continued fouling, rounds seen as genuinely drawn without a clear winner can be scored 10-10 - before that is all pulled together into the tapestry of the final scorecards. Judges do not have too long to clarify their thoughts and consider all factors. Even though it sometimes feels like the opposite is true, a challenger doesn’t need to ‘clearly’ beat a champion - they just have to win.
It’s a tough gig in many ways, but the sport continues to see regular examples of how the standard in this intrinsically important part of boxing is often just not up to scratch. Maybe the judges aren’t up to it, possibly some sort of technology could help, whatever the issue is something feels like it needs to change.
With that said, this was a fight in which objectively there could be little doubt who the winner was.
What should have been a fairytale moment - the huge underdog coming completely out of leftfield, having waited years for his shot, to stun the undefeated undisputed champion in front of his home crowd - instead looks to have become another mark against a sport which is littered with issues that seemingly are never truly addressed. Jack Catterall was succinct in his summing up of the general sentiment.
There is a distinct lack of a right to reply on the part of a fighter or his team when they feel they have been on the wrong end of a dubious result. The ability to appeal is pretty non-existent, the result won’t be changed. Public demand does sometimes lead to a rematch taking place, but that seems beside the point somewhat. A performance in a fight is sometimes a perfect storm of numerous factors, ones which might not ever quite fall the same way again.
I have been vocal in heaping praise on Josh Taylor’s achievements and his career has been a shining example of how boxing should be done at a time when we often don’t get the best out of the sport. Transitioning from standout amateur to pro world champion in record time, entering and winning the World Boxing Super Series, achieving undisputed in his division in just 18 fights. I believed he would beat Jack Catterall on Saturday as well before moving on to the next stage in his multi-division plans for the future. But he clearly did not win the fight, Jack’s moment was snatched from him, and that is a problem for the sport of boxing. The fact that this was seen as just the latest example of a corrupt sport incapable of saving itself is an even bigger one.
The thing is, this isn’t a situation of Josh’s making either, unless you have really gone down the corruption rabbit hole. Taylor has received a lot of abuse since Saturday night, much of which is unjustified, which I guess is par for the course in our hyper-connected, social media-driven world. I would absolutely argue that the best version of Josh Taylor we’ve seen so far in his career was under the tutelage of Shane McGuigan rather than his current trainer Ben Davison, and he has said some pretty questionable things in the past away from boxing, but it’s difficult to countenance the aggression we’ve seen in recent days. Taylor wasn’t judging his own fight.
This, however, should have been Jack Catterall’s night of glory.
Now, will my friends really not bother to watch when the next big event rolls around? I’d say they probably will, they might get sucked in by the hype, but boxing has used up at least some of its nine lives over recent years.
In the cold light of day, there have been worse cards delivered in boxing and Taylor showed steel to push the pace after that disastrous start. But he lost the fight - and boxing continuing to deliver these unsatisfying conclusions will erode people’s interest in following the sport. Canelo-Golovkin I (forever a GGG win for me), Fury-Wilder I, Lewis Ritson’s outrageous ‘win’ over Miguel Vazquez for a British example…it’s been a question of take your pick for connoisseurs of awful judging.
And that’s the really frustrating thing about boxing. If this were a well-run, transparent sport that delivered all of the fights it could do with less controversy then there would be few other sports in the world that could compete with it. There is a huge amount of stellar talent in boxing currently and so many fascinating stories to tell, but seeing outcomes like that of Taylor-Catterall pushes the perception of the entire sport a little bit further back every time. And in boxing, as it is in politics, perception might as well be reality.
The unfortunate truth for boxing is that, if you’re a fan with a fair memory, bemusing moments which make you consider the time you have dedicated to the sport are fairly common. Whether it is bad scoring, a litany of title belts forced in to the fight game by sanctioning bodies, a seemingly completely random and broken system for dealing with drug cheats, or any number of other glaring ‘highlights’…this is a sport that does not help itself at all.
Perhaps that should have been under the header not-so-quick thoughts. Anyway, in an attempt to end on a more positive note, here are a few things that might help to restore some level of favourable feeling towards boxing if last weekend’s fight has sullied the whole thing for you…
- If you haven’t seen it, the unbelievable stoppage victory of Jordan Gill over Karim Guerfi this past Sunday night to win the European featherweight title was perhaps one of the most surprising moments I’ve ever seen happen in a boxing ring. Truly out of nowhere, coming back from what appeared to be a hopeless situation and offering an example of the unique moments of unbelievable guts, drama and shock boxing can deliver…
- This weekend sees the return of the great Roman Gonzalez, as he faces current WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez in an absolutely mouthwatering contest, one which is also the latter’s debut at 115 pounds. The smaller weights, free of at least some of the political nonsense which blights the sport, deliver a wealth of outstanding dream fights on the regular and give a glimpse of just how great boxing could be if the big fights could be made more regularly at the higher weights. As ‘Chocolatito’ found out in his last fight with Juan Francisco Estrada, questionable cards are not immune in his division either, but this should be athletically outstanding with hopefully the right winner recorded as well. DAZN will broadcast, with Matchroom promoting.
- Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano headlining Madison Square Garden, the first women’s title fight to do so at the Mecca of boxing, is now less than two months away. Not only is the April 30th bout a fantastic match up, but it also feels like a truly meaningful step forward for the sport. So boxing is making strides in the right direction, in some areas at least.