It was much harder than anticipated, but unified junior welterweight champ Josh Taylor, in narrowly beating WBO no. 1 contender Jack Catterall this past Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland, has officially run through the bucket list of things a high-end main stage fighter might reasonably aspire to accomplish.
He’s unified all four belts in his division, made his way into the mythical (magical, nonsensical) pound-for-pound list, and he’s now had his win as a 4-belt champ in front of an adoring home country crowd (although it was hardly the triumphant showcase victory he would’ve liked).
There’s been plenty of debate as to whether he should’ve gotten the nod over Catterall (I had him winning, just barely, despite suffering a knockdown and getting roughed up pretty good). The rough go of things, however, seems to have finally made up The Tartan Tornado’s mind as to whether he wants to stay at 140. He doesn’t.
In the post-fight interview, a nicked-up Taylor flat-out said that this would probably be his last fight at junior welter and, up until the writing of this column, he’s held firm on that proclamation. Prior to fight night, he had been clearly leaning towards a move up in weight, but was still walking the fence, hinting that he could possibly keep his four 140 lb. belts while also stepping up to 147.
It’s funny how getting beat up in a bout he was expected to win easily changes a man’s perspective, right?
So, now what?
Moving up to 147 is the logical step for a unified junior welter champ with an eye on legacy. Taylor’s problem is that he has no immediate meaningful/money fight to make at 147.
A fight with WBO champ Terence Crawford was the only high-end welterweight bout available to him. And I emphasize WAS because, with Crawford leaving Top Rank and filing a nasty lawsuit against TR bossman Bob Arum, that option is out the window for the Arum/TR-promoted Taylor.
Every other bankable welterweight name (and world titlist), fights under the PBC banner. Getting Arum and PBC together for a Josh Taylor vs. anyone bout would redefine the word “futile.” The only other “big” non-PBC names in the division are Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron Ennis, who would present way too much risk for comparatively small reward. A Kell Brook fight for Taylor might do well in the UK, but would offer nothing more than an empty payday against a spent bullet.
So, if at all humanly possible, why not stick around and fight fellow Top Rank guy Teofimo Lopez, who’s moving up in weight after being beaten for his lightweight belts by George Kambosos back in November? Weight issues or not, if they can catch Lopez within the next eight-to-ten months (or before he either has a full meltdown or gets his shit together), this is a very winnable fight. If he ends up losing, oh well. Then move up. Either way, it’ll buy him a year or so to find some sort of profitable passage up to 147.
But, assuming Taylor’s done at 140 right now, those four belts of his need new owners.
Teofimo, with his connections, will find his way to a shot at one (at the very least). Ditto with Ryan Garcia, who claims to be headed to 140 soon, and Gervonta Davis as well (who already has a—wink, wink—world title at 140).
Below the privileged incoming stars, the sanctioning body rankings offer a glimpse of who might be on deck as possible future titlists. Jose Zepeda, former 2-belt champ Jose Ramirez, former champ Regis Prograis, Jack Catterall (who definitely deserves either a rematch or a shot at a vacant title), Jeremias Ponce, Sandor Martin (who upset Mikey Garcia last October), Subriel Matias, Arnold Barboza, Shohjahon Ergashev, Batyr Akhmedov, and Albert Puello are the names that get the most sanctioning body love at 140. Big-time prospect Brandun Lee will soon be a factor, as will Gary Antuanne Russell, who stopped Viktor Postol on Saturday. Montana Love and Rances Barthelemy are well-connected and could be dark horse contenders as well.
I know the ultimate goal should be one unified champ per division, but the intrigue in scoping out a shit-ton of potential title matches kind of busts apart the theory that multiple world champions are bad for the sport.
— I’d be remiss, btw, if I didn’t mention the Hector Luis Garcia wide, unanimous decision upset of “Primetime” Chris Colbert this past Saturday night.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say that Colbert’s performance was probably the worst performance of a high-end prospect in a “big” fight I’ve ever seen. And this isn’t coming from some millennial who became a boxing fan in 2013. I have 40+ years of experience at various levels of the game.
Colbert was flat and looked disinterested from the very beginning. He came without his “A” game and put forth zero effort to make any adjustments when his “B or C” game was getting him beaten. In the championship rounds when he knew a knockout was the only way he’d get a win, he still didn’t fight with any urgency. As a matter of fact, the further he got behind, the less urgency he displayed.
This is not a knock on Garcia or an effort to diminish his accomplishment. I had familiarized myself with Garcia before this fight and had watched plenty of video. I knew he was skilled, patient, and well-trained under the guidance of Ismael Salas. He was definitely a much better fighter than many assumed him to be. But Colbert had nothing and seemed to never look for an answer to what was being effective for Garcia.
Yeah, Garcia’s jab, straight left hand, and body work did well against Colbert. Sitting back and not flailing at Colbert’s flash and speed also helped immensely. But Colbert has faced all of that before without being shut down by it. One can’t help but have the feeling that Colbert being Colbert at full capacity would’ve done infinitely better. We just never saw THAT Colbert on Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see what he and his team say about this flat performance. Until further notice, though, Colbert is not the prospect most of us thought him to be.
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