Jack Catterall staying focused on eventual world title shot

Unbeaten British junior welterweight contender Jack Catterall was hoping to force his WBO mandatory title shot at Jose Ramirez (or Viktor Postol) sometime this year, but with things being as they are, that seems very unlikely.

Now, the 26-year-old Catterall (25-0, 13 KO) is sitting tight and waiting, as everyone in boxing is at the moment. He was actually set to attend the original February date for Ramirez-Postol in China, before that card was scrapped and rescheduled for May 9 in Fresno. That date has also been postponed.

“In an ideal world this fight would have gone on in February with Ramirez beating Postol — although, for me, Postol is not to be overlooked — and it would have been a good enough fight with nobody getting injured,” Catterall told Queensberry’s Lockdown Diary. “(Ramirez) then could have rested for the rest of February and most of March before getting ready to fight me in May. Also Josh Taylor would have fought (Apinun Khongsong) around the same time.

“As it is we are all waiting for the gyms to open and then I will still be waiting for the outcome of Ramirez vs Postol. I am under the impression I am going to have to fight again [in the interim] and it is a case of having to.”

Catterall doesn’t know whom he’ll fight next, but he feels he’s run out of opponents domestically and will have to look outside the UK to find someone suitable.

“It is who you fight and I don’t want to be in a shit fight,” he said. “I have boxed everyone at domestic level really and, when you look at the Golden Contract final (Ohara Davies vs Tyrone McKenna), I have beat both of them. I probably won’t get the credit for boxing a foreigner, but going into a world title fight I really don’t care.”

Catterall was appointed as WBO mandatory challenger back when Maurice Hooker still had the belt, which Hooker then lost to Ramirez in a unification last summer. Ramirez, meanwhile, has Postol as his WBC mandatory, which took precedence as first up over the WBO and Catterall.

But “El Gato” still has his shot coming. We don’t know when, or even have a very good idea of it, but it will come.