Boxing’s endless capacity for controversy and drama resurfaced again late on Saturday night in Glasgow when Josh Taylor was awarded a shocking split-decision victory over Jack Catterall and retained all his world super-lightweight titles. But the undisputed nature of his championship reign has been ruined by an absurd decision. Amid uproar and fierce dissent each fighter was judged to have won by a score of 113-112 while the third official thought Taylor had won by a scarcely credible 114-111.
Catterall knocked Taylor down heavily in round eight and he was clearly the better boxer. The bruised and cut state of the fortunate champion’s face told a very different story to the scorecards even though Taylor insisted that he had done enough to win the decision. An understandably distraught Catterall immediately left the ring in disgust as another dubious decision stained the already tarnished reputation of British officiating.
