A RIVALRY RUNNING DEEP

There aren’t many - if any - rivalries forged in such disdain as the one between Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall. 

Thankfully, the pair are ready to collide once again.

However, things aren’t quite the same as they were for their February 2022 meeting.

Belts have been vacated, and lost. Fights have been signed, and lost. Yet despite the landscape throwing up a string of changes, there is one thing that hasn’t changed at all.

These two still f**** despise each other.

A choke, a push and a slap tell the story, as a two-legged press tour gave Taylor and Catterall the chance to play both hero and villain in Edinburgh and Manchester.

However, home comforts are a luxury afforded to neither man, as the next instalment heads to the neutral, yet ever hostile territory of Leeds. And it feels just about right.

The First Direct Area is usually home to the faithful followers of Josh Warrington and Leeds United, who merrily march their man through every second of every round.

But in 10 weeks, it will be home to a crowd divided by nation, notion and narrative.

It will also be home to what could well be one of the fights of the year. I understand that may seem an easy tag to use, especially for a fight as hyped as this one.

But with the war of words, the deep-rooted dislike, and of course the scars of two years ago, there are genuinely 100 possibilities as to what we might see in the ring.

We could well get a Taylor with a point to prove. Whether he admits it or not, his scars of victory burn just as deep as Catterall’s scars of defeat. This time he has to get it right.

Does that mean he comes out searching for Catterall, supplementing each shot with two years of pent-up irritation? Remember, nobody had before questioned Taylor.

Prior to that first duel, the Scotsman carried an air of invincibility. It was befitting too, considering his rapid rise to undisputed champion. In that time, he was never floored nor fazed. He was a man in the zone of winning.

So, when it turned out that Catterall - a fighter he didn’t rate or respect - was the man to question his boxing mettle, well, it hit harder than any punch he’d ever taken.

I’m sure for that reason alone he would have dreamt over and over about steaming across the ring once that first bell sounds on April 18th .

However, Taylor must be careful and considerate with his potential career on the line.

It sounds mental, I know, bearing in mind it was only two fights ago in which he held every belt at 140lbs. Defeat this time round, though, would leave Taylor in a tricky spot.

I guess that means it is he who goes into the rematch with the real pressure on.

As for Catterall, well, he just has to do what he did last time, right?

Oscar Bevis

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