EL GATO’S ON THE PROWL FOR WORLD HONOURS ON HOME SOIL

Following on from the success of Chisora vs Wallin last weekend, big-time boxing stays in Manchester this weekend as the exciting Jack Catterall headlines a cracking Matchroom card against the undefeated American Arnold Barboza Jr for the WBO ‘Interim’ World Super-Lightweight Title.

Fresh off the back of career-best wins against Regis Prograis and Jose Ramirez respectively, both of these two will be looking to book themselves a date at the top table of the 140lbs division with Teofimo Lopez or, if Lopez decides to move up to welter, solidify their claims as the best super-lightweight on the planet.

A fighter that went massively under the radar early on in his career, Catterall picked up wins against the likes of Tyrone Nurse, Tyrone McKenna and Ohara Davies before earning a shot at undisputed against Josh Taylor.

We all know how that went down and since then, Jack’s career has taken off to unprecedented levels.

After getting signed by Matchroom, he’s put in terrific performances against Darragh Foley, Jorge Linares, Regis Prograis and of course, Josh Taylor in what was one of the most in-demand rematches in recent British boxing history.

Here though, he faces the unknown quantity of Arnold Barboza Jr.

Like Catterall, he’s gone under the radar massively for a majority of his career. After winning the WBO International title back in 2020, he’s worked his way up the WBO rankings to now find himself in prime position for a shot at the Interim title against Catterall.

His best win to date came last time out over former world champion Jose Ramirez in a fight where he boxed well off the back foot to earn a unanimous decision points win in a fairly close fight.

So, how do we see this fight going?

Despite fighting out of different stances, they’re both fairly similar in style. Both fight better off the back foot against pressure fighters where they can take their time, pick their shots and fight in bursts.

Barboza’s performance against Ramirez was very much like this. He let Ramirez get into range and then when he overcommitted, he made him pay and then let his hands go and pushed him back.

One of the things that will give Catterall masses of confidence though is Barboza’s performance against Sean McComb.

McComb, a southpaw like Catterall, used that long ramrod jab of his and made Barboza force the pace which clearly didn’t suit the American with many people believing that Barboza was lucky to get the decision.

Catterall doesn’t have the height advantage that McComb had in that fight but his footwork and jab are most definitely just as good and arguably a fair bit more powerful.

Despite only having 13 stoppages to his name so far, Catterall has shown that he carries power in both hands having dropped Regis Prograis AND Josh Taylor in their respective meetings.

You see the best of Catterall when he lets his hands go, as shown in his fight with Regis Prograis.

Early on in the fight, ‘El Gato’ seemed gun-shy, maybe due to the fact he had injured his rib in camp, and let Prograis get into his rhythm which saw the American nick the early rounds.

As soon as he started to let his hands go in round five though, he barely lost a minute of the rest of the fight and then as previously mentioned, sent Prograis crashing to the deck TWICE in round nine.

If Barboza is going to have any success in this fight, he needs to frustrate Catterall. He needs to make him come to him and not the other way around. Get in his rhythm nice and early and pick off Catterall where he can. This fight will be just as much of a mental battle as it is a physical one for both lads.

For Jack, he needs to start faster than what he did against Prograis and stop Barboza Jr getting in that rhythm. The American has shown that he isn’t a huge fan of southpaws and Jack can capitalise on that with his jab and his hand speed once he’s in range.

Jack’s combination punching to both head and body is comfortably one of the best in the division and if he has success with that early on and puts somewhat of a dent in Barboza and zaps any confidence he may have had prior to the fight, expect a big performance from the Chorley man.

To the undercard and what an undercard we’ve got in store here.

The chief support sees the always entertaining Reece Bellotti defend his British & Commonwealth Super-Featherweight Titles against Mikey Gomez Jr in what has now become a bit of a grudge match.

Originally scheduled to meet on the Catterall vs Prograis undercard in October, Gomez fell ill at the arena just hours before they were due to fight which saw the contest postponed. Obviously, Bellotti wasn’t happy and he did not mince his words one bit in the aftermath of the postponement.

Stylistically, it’s an interesting clash of styles.

Bellotti, as he has been for a large majority of his 24-fight career, is non-stop pressure. Trained by Jimmy McDonnell, who’s got a reputation for having some of the fittest fighters in the country, he could probably do 15 rounds with an elephant on his back.

Gomez, unlike his dad, the great Michael Gomez, is much more of a natural boxer. He’ll be the one looking to pick off Bellotti and try to land something big off the back foot which halts the Watford man in his tracks.

He did stop the durable Kane Baker in his last fight so he does have power but someone like Bellotti could well prove to be a bit too much of a nightmare for the Mancunian.

Who doesn’t love a good old Manchester vs Liverpool tear-up and that’s exactly what we are going to get when Zelfa Barrett takes on Jazza Dickens.

Barrett lit up the Manchester Arena in his last fight when stopping Jordan Gill whilst Jazza overcame a revolting cut to grind down Eduardo Mancito and get the seventh-round stoppage.

Similar to the Bellotti/Gomez Jr fight, it’s a clash of two styles.

The boxer in Barrett who can bang and the relentless pressure of Dickens. It’s got all of the ingredients to be the fight of the night.

It could well depend on what Jazza has left in the tank to decide what way this fight goes. Zelfa, despite having only fought six fewer times as a professional compared to Jazza, is much the fresher but what Jazza has which not many fighters have is the heart of a blue whale.

If he can get to Zelfa early on and not take too much punishment on the way in then this could make for a really interesting contest.

Elsewhere on the undercard, Olympic silver medallist Pat McCormack takes another big step up in opposition when he faces Robbie Davies Jr and the hard-hitting amateur standout Conner Tudsbury makes his professional debut against Sadaam Da Silva Caetano.

One of our prospects to follow in 2025, William Crolla, takes on Ayoub Zakari and Aqib Fiaz returns from over a year out of the ring against Lydon Chircop with Alfie Middlemiss taking on Caine Singh in the second fight of his professional career.

A massive night of boxing which will reveal many answers to many questions.