World Boxing News provides live results from Leeds as Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall run back their controversial 2022 battle.
Scotland’s Taylor got the previous decision in Glasgow over Catterall. The result is widely considered one of the worst in the history of British boxing. The pair will trade blows again, with hopefully a definitive winner as the outcome.
Taylor vs Catterall 2 undercard results:
Cheavon Clarke is the new British cruiserweight champion after scoring a knockout in eight rounds with one second left of the session. Clarke was on top for the early stages. However, Zorro was coming back in the mid-rounds. That was until Clarke landed a powerful onslaught, and Zorro slumped to the floor via the ropes.
The bell couldn’t save Zorro, so he was counted out to hand Clarke a ninth pro victory and the Lonsdale Belt.
HUGE KO 🤯@C4Chev is the new British Cruiserweight Champion 🇬🇧👑 #ClarkeZorro #TaylorCatterall2 pic.twitter.com/Uzj1C8CCVa
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) May 25, 2024
Irishman Paddy Donovan turned the screw in the eighth and ninth rounds to round off a dominant performance against a past-his-prime Lewis Ritson. Giving away weight and having far more miles on the clock didn’t help Ritson, who was almost beaten into submission the round before the end.
Howard Foster stepped in to save Ritson in the ninth after the Newcastle man took sickening uppercuts in the eighth and landed shots at will. Ritson looked all at sea at 147 pounds as Donovan moved to 14-0 and pushed towards a clash with Lewis Crocker.
CompuBox stats outlined Donovan’s domination.
“Donovan landed seven power punches in the first round to Ritson’s one. This set the pattern for the fight in which Donovan held significant power punches and landed an advantage throughout. After five rounds, Donovan’s edge was 45-20. A big eighth round saw Donovan land a fight-high 33 power punches. Donovan pounced on a wounded Ritson at the beginning of the ninth, landing 12 of 19 (63%) power punches and forcing the ref to halt the bout.”
After a hard-fought battle, Gary Cully carded a ten-round decision win over Francesco Patera. With the triumph, Cully pushed to 18-1 as Patera saw his record fall to 29-5.
CompuBox stats said, “Patera had some early success punching his way inside Cully’s long reach, but he could not sustain those moments as the fight progressed. Cully threw 101 more punches and landed 15 more punches. Patera actually landed 11 more power punches, but Cully held a 39-13 edge in jabs landed.”
Judges card unanimously for Cully 98-92 and 96-94 twice.
Super Featherweight Giorgio Visioli recorded a third straight professional victory by stopping Sergio Odabai in the fourth round. A body shot got the job done as Visioli ensured his one hundred percent KO ratio remained intact.
At Middleweight, George Liddard celebrated his first move up to eight rounds by taking just one to blast out Graham McCormack. Liddard dropped McCormack heavily before finishing off the job when his opponent got to his feet. Liddard improves to 7-0 as McCormack drops to 9-4-1.
Kicking off the pre-show, Super Welterweight Emmanuel Buttigieg moved to 4-0 by defeating Anas Isarti over the six-round distance.
Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
