Bob Arum goes full heel after Josh Taylor’s unanimous decision loss to Jack Catterall

Even at age 92, Bob Arum still has some fire in him.

The legendary promoter came in hot on Saturday after his boxer Josh Taylor lost his rematch with Jack Catterall by unanimous decision. The light welterweights’ first meeting was highly controversial, with Taylor winning by split decision despite many observers scoring it otherwise.

Saturday’s fight in Leeds, England went to the scorecards as well, with Catterall emerging as the winner by unanimous decision (117-113, 117-113, 116-113). The fight was all Catterall early, but Taylor fought back enough that some expected to the scores to be close.

Arum apparently thought Taylor was the winner, and was so galled that all three judges instead had him losing by at least three points, he pledged to never bring an American to the country:

Arum’s reaction, which was met with boos by the English crowd:

On the note of allowing an American fighter to fight via “the British board,” it’s probably worth noting that Taylor is Scottish.

Taylor also expressed a belief that he had won the fight, barely, but conceded the loss.. before calling for a trilogy fight:

Taylor had already lost the final components of his undisputed light-welterweight title to Teofimo Lopez last June. His rematch with Catterall represented a chance to answer the largest remaining question from his undefeated run, until Catterall came out swinging.

The scorecards were at least in agreement that Catterall won the first, second, fourth, fifth and eleventh rounds, while all three judges had Taylor winning the seventh. Every other round sees a difference in opinion, including a tie on one card in the sixth round.

CompuBox saw the fight as a bit closer than those scores indicated, with Catterall outlanding Taylor 176-162 in total punches, but Taylor winning 102-88 in power punches.